I'm Not Ready for Marriage
by smile78mtl
Summary: Tohru is getting married, but who is the groom? [OOCness, random plots, fluffiness and light yaoi content]
1. Unexpected Proposal

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Disclaimer: I don't own Fruit Basket or any of the character in this story.

Warning: OOCness, random plots, fluffiness and light yaoi content. The rating gets higher toward the end of the story. Rate M – to be safe.

Summary: Tohru is getting married, but who is the groom? The story takes place after the Sohma's curse is over. I'm not creative enough to write romance that involves animal transformation, so I decide to write that the curse is over. I don't know how or who broke the curse, so just go along with the story and see if you like it.

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**I'M NOT READY FOR MARRIAGE **

**Chapter 1 – Unexpected Proposal **

Kyo was pacing back and fort in front of the kitchen where Tohru was fixing lunch. He peeked in through the door and popped back out. Getting frustrated he approached her. "Tohru?"

Hearing a familiar voice, she responded without turning away from the stove, "Yes, Kyo."

Admiring her long brown hair and slender body he repeated her name. "Tohru."

"What is it, Kyo?" She asked again still facing her back at him.

"Tohru… I," he managed.

Something was bothering Kyo, so she turned around with her usually sweet voice and asked, "Can I help you with something, Kyo?"

"I want to… um… say that… um…," he hesitated, "Oh, forget it". Tohru was looking at him seeping with concern, so he quickly lied, "Uh… I just wanted to see what you're cooking. It's not leek, right?"

"No, I'm paring tuna, just the way you like it, grilled." She smiled. "I'll be done soon, so please let me know if you need anything. Okay?"

"Yah." He caught the corner of her aqua blue eye as he walked out blushing.

A few minutes later, Yuki came into the kitchen and found Tohru cleaning the tuna and he asked the obvious, "You're cooking fish?"

"Yeah and miso soup." She replied with a big grin as she knew that miso was one of Yuki's favorite.

"Tohru?" Her purple eyed friend asked.

"Yes, Yuki." She replied lightly, her eyes met his.

"Tohru… I," he managed.

"Yuki, is something wrong?" She quickly questioned with concern.

"I ya…," he paused. "Sorry. I forgot what I wanted to say." he lied. "I'll see you later when you're done."

"Okay, let me know if you need anything. Okay?"

"Yeah."

'This is strange.' she thought to herself. 'Both Kyo and Yuki are acting weird. Maybe it's a 'Sohma' thing, but the curse has been broken, so what can be bothering them? They're not going to transform into animal anymore. Could it be a family event that is coming up? I'll ask Shigure later to see if he knows anything about this.'

Tohru finished with her cooking, so she started setting the table. Shigure picked up the wonderful scent and welcomed himself to the table. "Oh, heaven! Miso soup and grilled tuna… hmm…" He drooled at the food.

"Shigure, something is wrong with Kyo and Yuki. They're acting weird this morning. Do you happen to know what's wrong with them?" She asked politely.

"Hmm… Let me think." It only took him a minute and he sneered, "Oh, yeah it's something like a disease."

"That's horrible! But, why?" Tohru was confused. What could be the cause of this disease? Now that the curse was over, they could live a normal life, so why?

"It's a…" He paused. "It's a Sohma's thing."

Tohru turned pale, "Why? Does this have anything to do with the curse?"

He nodded.

"But, I thought that the curse is over." She cried.

"Yes, the transformation stage is over but because of that, the second stage begins."

Tohru dropped down to her knees.

"Don't worry. I know exactly how to cure it." Shigure spoke in her silence.

"Really?" She asked sounding a bit relieved.

"Yah." He stood up and advanced to her. "You don't have to worry about a thing. I'll have it all taken care of before you know it." He leaned forward and grabbed her arms; pulled her up to her feet, "Tohru." He spoke gently into her ears.

"Shigure, what are you…"

"Shh…" He caressed her face with both of his hands.

Tohru's voice rose a little, "Shigure?"

He quieted her with a gentle kiss, "You're beautiful."

Tohru eyes widen as she pushed him away. She didn't understand, "Shigure, why?"

"I love you." He explained. "I'll make everything and everyone feel better." He took her hand and looked at her straight into her eyes, "Tohru, would you marry me?"

Kyo and Yuki walked in the moment that he proposed, bursting in flames they both yelled his name, "SHIGURRREEE!"

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**Back Stage Discussion: **

Kyo: Hey! I thought that you'll be pairing me up with Tohru?

Smile: I haven't got there yet.

Yuki: What about me?

Smile: You too.

Shigure: Are you saying that Tohru will not accept my proposal?

Smile: I didn't say that.

Everyone: What's going to happen next?

Smile: I don't know. This story pops out of nowhere, so I'm not really sure where I will take it. I'm currently working on another fic at this time, so I don't have much time for this one. If I get at least 10 reviews for the first chapter, then I'll make some time to write more. If not, then I'll just until I finish the other one first.

Shigure: Aren't 10 asking too much?

Smile: No, not at all. I don't get anything out of this, so the least you can do is to give me a one word review and I'll just die to receive it.


	2. Confliction

**Chapter 2 – Confliction **

Kyo and Yuki both dragged Shigure each by the arm and pulled him outside to the yard where Tohru wouldn't see them. Tohru was still in shock and didn't even notice that the three men were gone. She reached up to her lips, 'That was my first kiss.' She dropped back down onto the hardwood floor and turned pink.

"Hell, what did you do?" Kyo screamed into Shigure's face, breathing heavily as he formed a fist and was about to smack Shigure, but Yuki stopped him. "Are you taking his side?" He growled.

"No! We need to…" Yuki wanted to observe the situation, but was cut off by the steaming cat.

"We need nothing!" Kyo returned a fist which landed on Yuki's chin.

"What's the matter with you?" Yuki yelled back. "You're not getting anywhere like this!" He took Kyo by the arms, twisted them behind his back and glared at Shigure sharply. "Why?" He asked.

"Why? Well that's a good question." Shigure smirked at the younger boys.

"Spit it out, you damn dog!" Kyo was now getting frustrated.

"How long has it been since Tohru lives with us?" Shigure asked them amusingly.

"We ask you 'why' you dimwit." Yuki snarled.

"Answer the question." He demanded.

"Two years." Both boys replied at the same time.

"And all this time, neither one of you confessed your feeling to her, so I thought…"

"It's none of your business!" Kyo interrupted Shigure before he could finish his sentence.

"Yes." Yuki agreed.

Shigure smiled and said, "Tohru is innocent, too innocent." He looked at Kyo and then to Yuki. "As innocent as she is she cannot stay young forever. If neither of you want her, then I will take her. I love her and I don't want her young and innocent to be wasted waiting for your confession." Shigure explained with a smile so mischievous that made Kyo and Yuki thought ill of him.

"Tohru is mine. Don't you guys dare lay a finger on her!" The cat exclaimed.

"No, she's not. It's obvious that Tohru needs someone to protect her and I'm that someone she'll need." Yuki argued.

"I can also protect her."

"How? You can't protect anyone in your situation right now?" Yuki smirked.

"Let me go!" Kyo squirmed away from Yuki arms and stormed back into the dinning area. "I'll ask her." He spoke to himself. "Tohru…Tohru…" He called out to her as he found her still sitting down on the floor with her hands on her face. "Tohru…"

"Kyo." She looked up and met his dark eyes focusing on her.

"Are you going to take Shigure seriously?" He looked straight into her eyes.

She didn't know what to say to him. Were Kyo and Yuki both sick? Was Shigure saying the truth about the disease? If she was to accept his proposal will he do what he said and cure everything and everyone. Tohru was confused at this moment. Why was there a second stage to the curse and why did Shigure kissed her? She had always thought of him as an older brother. Did she take him wrong all these time?

"Tohru, answer me!" Kyo demanded.

"I don't know."

"So you will marry him?" Kyo spoke quickly as he reached out wanting to touch her, but hesitated and kept his arms back.

"I don't know." Tohru replied again shaking her head.

Kyo was getting very impatient now, "Why?" Kyo kneeled down on the floor next to her. He reached for her, running his finger through her hair and pulled away every strand of hair that was covering up her beautiful face. "Tohru, for a long time now…" He paused and lifted her chin up with his fingers, "I want you to know that I…" He paused and took in a deep breath, "I love you."

"Kyo." Tohru stared into his eyes. What was this feeling rushing inside of her? Her heart was racing as she saw her reflection in his pupils. Tohru had never seen Kyo looked at her like this; his eyes were flaring and too intense to ignore.

Kyo leaned forward only inches away from her as he repeated, "I love you." He was so closed to her now that she could feel his every breath. He was holding onto each of her shoulder as he continued, "I don't know when it started, but I know that you're the only one that makes me feel right and the only one that I'm able to love, now and always."

"Kyo." Tohru blushed; she could feel her hand trembled and her lungs gasped for air.

"I…don't…"

Before Tohru could finish what she was about to say, Kyo closed her lips with his and squeezed her soft body against his. He kissed her deep and passionately. Tohru couldn't squirm away. Kyo was holding her tight, she couldn't breath anymore and her heart stopped a beat, rush emotion overfilled her and tear started to drip from her blue's eyes.

"What's wrong?" Kyo felt the wetness from her eyes and pulled away. "Why are you crying? Did I make you cry?" Kyo tried to wipe off Tohru tears with his finger.

Tohru looked at him, but said nothing. Her eyes were focusing on his as she trailed down to his lips; they were still wet from their kiss. It made her blood pressure rose again and tears were washing down her face and she couldn't stop them.

At this moment, Yuki came in and jerked Kyo up by his collar. "What did you do to her?" Yuki pushed Kyo into a corner. "I thought that you said that you'll protect her? Why did you make her cry?" Yuki gave Kyo a few punches in the stomach which sent him onto the floor on his hands and knees.

"No, Yuki please!" Tohru's scream echoed through the house.

Kyo lifted his head up and saw Tohru staring at him, her eyes were wide opened and she looked as if she was in pain; she looked frighten. 'I hurt her.' He thought and then he looked to Yuki, "I hurt her." Kyo grabbed hold of his stomach and thought, 'Yuki is strong and he will never make her cry and he can protect her. I only hurt her.'

"What?" Yuki didn't catch Kyo's response. "What are you saying?"

"Please take care of her for me." With that Kyo left the scene.

"Kyo, no…" Tohru tried to raise her hand up to reach Kyo but she was not able to move. She was frozen from the moment that they kissed and couldn't move her mounted body from the floor.

Yuki turned to her and pulled her up as she stumbled against his chest. He held on to her and hugged her tightly. "Tohru… I promise that I will protect you. I will not let anyone hurt you."

"Yuki." She managed to say softly.

"I love you, Tohru." Yuki also confessed his feelings.

"Yuki, but I…"

"Tohru." He said her name and squeezed her closer. "Please… I love you for so long… Now that I can hold you in my arms, I want to protect you. I promise that I'll never let you go. I will never let you cry. I will protect you from the stupid dog and cat. I want to be the only man in your life." Yuki said in his sweetest voice ever.

Tohru's head was spinning; she couldn't think anymore, too much had happen in the same day. First, Shigure proposed then Kyo's kiss and now Yuki's protection; who should she choose? She loved all three of them, each in a different way, but how can she picked one and not hurt the other ones' feeling.

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**Back Stage Discussion: **

Smile: This is all for now. I'll update as soon as I can.

Kyo: Why did Tohru cry when I kissed her?

Tohru: I'm so confused now. What should I do?

Yuki: Will Tohru choose me?

Shigure: Hey, I'm still here and she hasn't responded me yet. So will she accept my marriage proposal?

Smile: I guess you'll have to find out in the later chapters.


	3. Compromise Solution

**Chapter 3 – Compromise Solution **

It was a late and cold lunch, but Shigure was able to gather everyone together. The atmosphere was tense, Shigure sat opposite from Tohru; Kyo sat next to him and Yuki next to her. Everyone's eyes were focusing on Tohru, but she was still flustered from what happened and was lost in her train of thoughts. She couldn't eat; she as well as Yuki and Kyo were nibbling on their rice one grain at a time.

"Now, now, we don't want to waste Tohru's wonderful cooking now we?" Shigure sneered at his two younger cousins while he enjoyed his food as usual. Between the four of them, he seemed to be the only person who wasn't bothered by the situation that he created.

'She must think that I'm a jerk right now.' Kyo thought as he peeked over diagonally to steal a glance from Tohru. Her eyes caught his and he quickly looked away feeling shameful.

'Oh… Kyo.' She thought.

Yuki saw the worry look on Tohru's face and placed his hand on top of hers. She looked up and received a warm smile from him, which made her smiled back.

"Tohru, about what I said earlier…" Shigure finished his portion of the food and wanted to remind her. She turned over and looked at him feeling a little nervous.

"Yes…" She replied.

"I mean what I've said, so what is your answer?" He asked in a calm and serious tone.

"I… I don't know." At this moment, she wished that she could split herself into three and give each man a piece of her, but that was just being selfish. She took a few seconds to look at Shigure. He was like a brother to her; she had never thought about him in any other ways, but if marrying him would make everyone happy then she should consider it. She knew that he would make her a happy bride and feeling could grow and build up together. She glanced over and looked at Kyo; he didn't seem to be himself. He looked distracted and it was painful to see him all wired up and not being his outrageous self. 'Could it be my fault?' she thought. Kyo had not looked back at her since his glance from before. Kyo had always put off a tough and angry face, but under that mask was a gentle soul; a soul sometimes lost itself and could not express or compresses its feelings. Finally, she turned her head over and met Yuki's purple eyes. He was still looking at her. Yuki was always a kind and noble person; he always looked out for her. She knew that she liked him, but she also liked Kyo. She couldn't decide who she liked more or who was it that she loved. "I can't…" She managed to continue.

"Do you mean 'No'?" Shigure tried to clarify her response.

"No… yes… no, what I mean to say is that I can't give you an answer yet. I need some more time to think about it." She replied gently. "I know that everyone loves me and I'm very grateful to you, to Kyo and to Yuki. What more does a girl wants, but to be loved and have a place where she can call home. I know this is selfish of me, but I don't understand my own feelings right now. I mean that I'm not ready to get marry. I still have school and I need to make plan for my future after graduation. I don't want to be a burden to anyone."

"Tohru, I know that is difficult for you to choose between three handsome men, but you will need to make a decision soon. If this continue on everyone will just get hurt and bury. I love you and I don't mind waiting a while longer, but I need you to be strong and get your feeling out. Let me help you decide with a compromise." Shigure smiled as he reached his hand to hold hers.

"Compromise?" Kyo and Yuki questioned at the same time.

"Shigure…" Tohru looked into his eyes.

"Why don't we get engage?" Shigure suggested.

"Huh?" Her voice was low and confused.

"You bastard! Didn't you hear that she needed more time?" Kyo snapped and jumped up from his seat. Tohru was happy to see him all jumpy again.

"First, you propose marriage and now you want to be engage. You just never stop would you?" Yuki asked sarcastically.

"You'll be graduating this summer, so until then let's be engage. During this time can you reconcile your feelings and make plan for your future. I have no problem with you being with Kyo or Yuki. Between now and then, if you figure out who is it that you love, then I will gladly step aside and let him be your groom, but if you couldn't decide by then, than I'll be your groom. No matter who you choose, I promise to fulfill my words and make everything better."

"What kind of compromise is that?" Yuki exclaimed.

"You damn dog! So, you'll just sit aside while Yuki and I fight for Tohru and if she couldn't choose between us then you'll get her without doing a damn thing!" Kyo steamed up and destroyed the door behind him.

"You can't say that! I have to sit aside and watch you fight over my bride-to-be and that's very stressful too, you know." Shigure smirked back at them.

"Shigure…but I…" Tohru spoke.

"No, buts." He replied. "I've made up my mind." Shigure stared at her; his dark brown eyes met her blue ones assuring her that everything will be alright. She couldn't help but soften up to his word.

"Okay… I accept." She agreed timidly.

"Tohru!" Both boys yelled.

"Great! Then let go out." Shigure said still holding onto Tohru's hand.

"Where?" She asked.

"To get you an engagement ring and make plans for the wedding."

"But…"

"No buts… You accept, remember? We'll get marry right after your graduation." With that said, he escorted Tohru out and left the two younger cousins stared as they disappeared from the house.

"SHIGURE! YOU DAMN DOG!" Kyo yelled from behind.

"Stupid cat." Yuki said while feeling disappointed himself. How could he have let Shigure set them up like that?

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**Back Stage Discussion: **

Shigure: I've got everyone exactly where I wanted them. (evil grin)

Tohru: Did I do the right thing?

Kyo: This pisses me off!

Yuki: Oh…Tohru. (worried)

Smile: I know that the chapters are short, but I hope that you'll enjoy it.


	4. Rapid Episodes

**Chapter 4 – Rapid Episodes **

The days were getting warmer as summer approached, Tohru walked along side with Shigure as they traveled into town. This was be the first time that they walked together like this and she blushed every time other people walked by and stared at them. She had to admit that Shigure's assertiveness did have a charm to it and when he was serious he could be very intriguing too. He purchased her a ring just like he said; it was a blue sapphire ring that reflected her eyes color. She tried to refuse, but he wouldn't let her talk her way out it. She accepted the ring and wore it on her ring finger just like he instructed.

Shigure was in high spirit and very cheerful; he had been smiling ever since they left the house. They were on their way to Ayame's shop. Shigure sprung the door open and called to his friend, "Aya!"

"Shigure?" Ayame was surprised to find his buddy and Tohru together in his shop. "Hi, Tohru. What's up?" He asked her while staring sharply at Shigure.

Tohru greeted Ayame with a smile and before she could answer his question Shigure sang, "You… have… to gue…ss."

"Come on, Shigure. Don't be mean!" Ayame cried.

"Tohru and I are getting married!" He said again in his singing voice.

"What? How could you?" Ayame exclaimed with misty eyes. "What about Yuki? How does he feel about this?"

"He and Kyo know about it." Shigure replied. "We're here to order a wedding dress for Tohru." He continued while Tohru stood by his side and her cheeks turned pink.

"Okay, Shigure you have to call me and give me all the detail later tonight. Tohru come in here with me." Ayame led her to the back room where he asked his assistance to get her measurement. He then turned over and asked her, "Are you okay with this? I mean marrying Shigure."

Tohru wasn't sure if she was okay with it. Everything happened so fast; it was like a dream, a fast forward reality that didn't make sense. Yet, since she met the Sohma two years ago, nothing made sense; everything that happened to them was out of the ordinary and nothing was explainable. Right now, she wondered, 'Did I make the right decision? Should I ask Ayame for advice? He is also a part of the zodiac, so maybe he's also experiencing the second stage of the curse.' She stood there for another second to ponder her thought and closed her eyes tightly. 'No, I shouldn't. I'll just make everyone worry and after how much everyone care about me. I shouldn't have them worrying about me all the time. Right now… this is the right choice, until then… Shigure promised…'

She replied Ayame's question with a smile and said, "Yes."

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Back at the house, flames were still in the air. Yuki and Kyo glared at each other like two lost animals in the deep forest.

"AhHHHH! That damn dog pisses me off!" Kyo exploded his lungs out.

"So, are you gonna let Shigure jerk us around?" Yuki asked the over tempered Kyo. "He got us exactly where he wants us."

"What?" The dull cat questioned.

"He's pulling our strings." Yuki explained. "Like you said before, he constructed the whole scenario so that we both confessed to Tohru and confused her. If we don't do anything then he'll take Tohru's indecisiveness and use it to his advantage. I don't want to imagine what he'll do to her and he got the upper hand here."

"No, he can't do this to her!" Kyo shouted. "I'm not going to give up on her that easy! About what I said earlier, just forget it! I'm going to fight for her!" He didn't care anymore about Shigure or Yuki. Now the only person Kyo needed was Tohru, he needed to ask her why? Why did she cry?

"Stupid cat." Yuki said and headed out for a walk. He needed some quiet time to think.

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After visiting Ayame, Shigure took Tohru around town shopping and made wedding arrangement. He was so involved in the whole idea that he dragged Tohru around until sun set and they ended up eating out and brought home dinner for Yuki and Kyo. Tohru was so exhausted after the long day; she came home and walked straight up to her bedroom. She dropped down onto her bed and breathed.

"Oh mom, you won't believe this, but I'm getting married." Tohru turned over to her bed stand and talked to her mom. "I'm so confused now. Oh, mom, if you were here with me, then you could give me some advice. How did you choose Dad? How did you know that he was the one for you? I'm having a tough time to choose now. You're little girl has three suitors, can you believe that? This has to be a dream and I'll wake up tomorrow as if nothing happened…" Tohru continued to lie in bed and then she stood up and decided to take a warm bath. She pulled out her pajamas and towel and opened her door. As she walked out she landed her face onto a firm chest. "Oh, I'm sorry." Before she could look up to see who it was, she was embraced into a hug.

"Tohru…"

Her heart rhythm rose faster to the voice she heard. She looked up to meet his gloomy dark red eyes; they looked sad. He squeezed her waist tighter against his. Her heart pounded harder, she could feel it vibrated through her chest. She looked at him and started to blush. 'The kiss…' She remembered. 'Is he going to kiss me again?' She closed her eyes without thinking twice and waited for him.

"Tohru…" He released her from his embrace and asked, "I want to know why? Why did you cry earlier today when I… when I kissed you?" He quickly looked away afraid that her answer dried him out.

She opened her eyes and saw that he looked away from his question. She exhaled from her excitement and said his name, "Kyo." She got his attention and he looked back at her as she continued, "I had some tears, but I wasn't crying." She explained.

'If tears running down your face aren't crying than what is?' Kyo thought. His concerned formed a frown.

Tohru quickly responded back, "I don't know how to explain it. Everything happened so fast, I was still puzzled with Shigure's proposal and I was not ready to receive your kiss. You came on so sudden that I… that I… I got overwhelmed. I guess that's why my tears came running, but I wasn't crying, if any, I was happy."

Kyo didn't understand what she said, but if she was happy, then that was all it mattered. He wanted to confirm it and asked, "So, I didn't hurt you. Did I?"

"No. You would never hurt me!" She exclaimed and gave him the goofy smile that he had always complimented.

"Good. I'm glad." He smiled back.

'Kyo looked handsome when he smiled. He should do it more often.' She thought.

"Okay, it's late. I better go back to bed." Kyo said as he turned around to head back, he noticed a tall figure in the dark hallway. "Ah! You damned dog! You could've killed someone!"

"Hi, Tohru." Shigure raised his hand to greet her.

"Shigure?" She responded peeking over Kyo's shoulder.

"What the hell are you doing sneaking around at this hour?" Kyo asked.

The older cousin narrowed his eyes and examined Kyo, "What about you?" He then looked at Tohru. They both blushed.

"It's none of your business!" Kyo answered.

"Well, then go back to sleep and don't disturb me and Tohru playing house." Shigure smirked.

"Playing what?" Kyo eyes lighted up the dark hallway. "NO! No way! You're going back where you came from!" Kyo shouted angrily.

"But, that's what fiancées do." Shigure said.

"Do what?" Tohru asked.

"Tohru, I'm taking this dirty dog back to where it came from, so just go back into you room and sleep."

"Oh, Tohru, I'm sorry, we'll do it another time, o... kay." Shigure said as Kyo dragged him away.

"You bastard!" Kyo yanked him harder down the corridor.

"Okay." Tohru replied as the two men left her standing at her door thinking, "What were they talking about? Playing house? I think I'll just go to sleep now."

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**Back Stage Discussion: **

Kyo: That dirty scum is killing me!

Yuki: You've got that right. He's pushing it too far.

Shigure: Come on, be nice and you should be respecting your elder. Anyway, does anyone know who this hyper-writer14 is?

Yuki: Beats me.

Kyo: Hell would I know.

Tohru: I don't know either.

Smile: From what she said, it looks like she hates you Shigure.

Shigure: Me? Why me? I'm just having too much fun. That's it! My having fun get in her nerves. I don't care and screw her!

Tohru: Now, let's play nice okay.

Shigure: Hey, if I did screw her then maybe she'll understand. (He He He He!)

Kyo: You're just thinking about cheating on Tohru! You dirty dog!

Yuki: It couldn't be help. He was just brought up that way. It makes me wonder why Hatori still have his head up straight. Hmm…

Tohru: How did you know that hyper-writer14 is a she?

Smile: I just kinda guess.

Tohru: What if she's a he?

Smile: I doubt it.

Tohru: What's going to happen next?

Smile: Let me see… I think that I'll play with Yuki in the next Chapter.

Yuki: Me? What are you going to do with me?

Smile: Something… fun…


	5. Another Kiss

**Chapter 5 – Another Kiss **

Morning came and it was Sunday. Tohru woke up early as usually, but wasn't in her best condition. After everything that happened yesterday, who would? She came out of her room and headed down stairs with her head still in the cloud she caught her leg in a log and she fumbled down the staircase. Kyo rushed down the stairs and held her up. "Tohru! Are you okay?" He asked.

"Kyo, what are you doing here?" Tohru grabbed hold of his hand and stood up.

"I was… um watching for dogs." He replied with a yawn.

"Dogs? But we don't have any." She didn't catch Kyo's drift. She rubbed her hips with one hand while the other hand was still holding onto Kyo's grip; she noticed that Kyo's hand was cold. "Oh my god! Did you sleep here the entire night? Your hands are freezing. Yes! You have to go back in bed now and I'll start breakfast and get you something warm." She said quickly.

"Do you need any help?" He asked. "You don't look too well, either."

"I'm fine. If you weren't sitting there, I'll probably fell anyways. I can be a total klutz sometimes." She couldn't sleep much last night after all the happened. She could might as well be sleepwalking and fell by herself. Tohru gave Kyo a big grin to confirm that she was okay.

'A klutz? Yeah maybe sometimes, but cute in all.' He thought with the smallest smile and went to his bedroom. Since it was morning, he didn't have to worry about the Shigure's naughty intentions. He covered his yawn and snuggled down into his bed.

Two hours later, Tohru had finished with all her cooking and cleaning for the morning. 'Everyone is still sleeping. I should take my bath now and serve breakfast later.' She thought. 'A warm bath should help me wake up and look livelier. I don't want to worry anyone.' Tohru walked back upstairs and felt a little light headed. She managed to get her clothes and went to the bathroom. She heard the water running and thought, 'Did I leave the water running?' She couldn't remember from her fatigue condition. She opened the door and walked inside. She hanged her clothes and towel on the rail next to the door and stripped her cloths. She approached the tub and reached out her hand attempting to stop the running faucet. Before she reached the tub she caught a glimpse of a grayish purple lock of hair at the angle of her eyes; it emerged rapidly up into the air and the bath water splashed onto the tile floor. Tohru froze instantly, her eye wide opened, 'Yuki…' They stood staring at each other for about one second, but the one second seemed to be an eternity. Tohru burned red from head to toes, 'Yuki is bathing… naked… and… I'm…' She quickly turned away, grabbed for the towel vigorously; her grip forced the rail to collapse and she loosed her balance. Her legs slithered backward as her body dropped forward and her hand squirmed for the nearest contact.

Yuki jumped out and cushioned her fall with his moist body and she landed on top of him. He wrapped his hands over her and breathed, "I'm glad that I caught you just in time." Tohru's face was buried on his chest underneath her brown hair. The fall gave her a shock and numbed her body; she couldn't move. Yuki was also hurt; he bumped the back of his head on the tile floor when he broke her fall. Both of them lay there for about a minute before Yuki realized the position that they were in and unclothed. Yuki started to get tense as he pulled his way up and Tohru fell back to a sitting position. Yuki started to touch her face and thought, 'She's so beautiful.' He traced his fingers along her face and down to her chin and noticed her lips turning colored; he rubbed his fingers onto her lips. Tohru blushed and her body shivered. 'She's cold.' He pulled her in and cuddled her in his arms feeling contented he couldn't control himself and little by little he lower his head and explore her lips.

"Tohru, I've heard something clanking. Are you o…?" Shigure sprung the door opened and surprisingly found Yuki kissing Tohru. "Oh…my… I'm sorry!" At that he slammed the door back into its hinges.

The sudden noise of the door closing released Tohru from her numbness and she crawled backward to escape Yuki's arms, "I'm so sorry… I didn't mean to…"

"No, I should be the one that is sorry. I shouldn't have…" Yuki argued. "I'm sorry…" He grabbed his clothes from the top of the hamper by the end of the tub and left the bathroom.

Tohru sat against the wall in silence trying to recollect what just happened. She shook her head hastily and got up to her feet. 'This was just an accident that's all.' She took a deep breath and exhaled.

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Breakfast was ready. Shigure and Yuki were already at the table waiting for Tohru to serve the rice. Kyo came down to join them and sat next to Tohru. Everyone started eating. The room was silent, so quiet that they could hear each other chewing noises. Shigure rotated his dark eyes from Yuki then to Tohru and back to Yuki and Tohru.

Kyo caught Shigure's back and fort movement and it bothered him. "Hell, what is wrong with you?" He asked. "And this silent treatment is driving me nuts! Tohru say something already. Yuki! Anyone!"

No answer. Just eyeballs movement from Shigure, Tohru blushed and Yuki lost in his train of thought.

"This is pissing me off!" Kyo yelled. "Something is going on here and I want to know!"

"Do you really want to know? I think that you better off not knowing." Shigure finally smirked out an answer.

"Does it have anything to do with Tohru?" He asked.

Shigure nodded, "Uh-huh."

"Then spill it!" Kyo demanded.

"No." Tohru said softly. Just this one word startled Kyo; his eye widen as he looked at her shock expression.

"It's none of your business." Yuki replied bluntly.

"You ugly rat! So, you think that I'm not good enough to know. What is going on?" He turned over and grabbed Tohru's shoulders. "Is there something that you're not telling me?"

Tohru looked into his red eyes; he looked furious. 'Should I tell him? It only an accident and nothing happened. Nothing really happened except that Yuki and I were both naked and we were… we were… kissing and hugging each others bared body.' Tears started to run from her blues eyes.

"Get you're hands off her!" Yuki shouted seeing Tohru being tortured.

Kyo withdrew back and slammed his fist onto the floor; red fluid busted out from his knuckles and soaked the area rug.

"Kyo, you're hurt." Tohru quickly held up his arms.

He pulled away from her and fiercely glared at Shigure. 'He must have done something to her, but what and why won't she tell me, am I not good enough for her to trust me?'

"Please Kyo we need to cover that wound." Tohru begged.

He sighed heavily. "No. I'm leaving!"

"Where?" She asked.

"Out of here… I need some air…" He looked at Tohru's depressing face and said with a flat tone, "Don't worry, I'll be back." He left the house with his bruised hand unattended.

"Tohru, are you okay?" Yuki rested his hand on her shoulder.

She looked up and he gave her a warmed smile. Her lips creased together and formed a small grin. "Thank you."

"I'm sorry. It's my fault." Yuki said.

"No, you had nothing to do with it!" She exclaimed. "It was an accident. It was me who walked in. You don't have to apologize. I should have told Kyo."

"Why didn't you?" Yuki asked curiously.

"I don't know." She said, but thought to herself, 'I was… I was scared. I was scared to find out what kind of reaction Kyo would have if he found out what happened.'

Yuki kneeled down in front of her and pull her into an embrace. "Tohru, after what happened... I want you even more. I want to be closer to you and to be able to see you and love every detail of you."

'Yuki, he is always warm and gentle with me. He always managed to get me smile.' She thought.

"Tohru, I need an answer from you."

"Yuki, I…" She paused and thought, 'Should I? He looked so determine. If I choose him, then everything will be over with. I don't need to marry Shigure and I won't worry Kyo either, but…' Tohru was still indecisive as she replied to Yuki, "I need more time."

He squeezed her tighter as he looked into her weary eyes. "I understand and I'll wait for you… until you say yes."

"Thank you." She whispered into his ears.

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**Back Stage Discussion: **

Shigure: Wah! I was totally ignored in this chapter!

Yuki: The stupid dog came in at the most crucial moment and ruined my kiss with Tohru, and he said that he was ignored. What a jerk!

Tohru: Wow! Look at this; we have 13 reviews from our last posting!

Smile: Hey, it looked like you have another fan, Shigure. Her name is Starskysea.

Shigure: Great! Is she better looking than the other one?

Yuki: How would we know?

Tohru: Yeah, hyper-writer14 had a great question in her last review: How was Shigure brought up? Do you know?

Smile: Let me think.

Shigure: Why ask her? Ask me?

Yuki: Like you would give us a straight answer?

Shigure: Of course, I am who I am and Smile just interpreted me the way that she thinks who I am.

Yuki: Oh great! A long speech is coming.

Ayame: If you need to ask anyone, then ask me. I know every intimate detail about Shigure.

Everyone: Where did you come from?

Ayame: I missed Shigure; he hadn't called me for a while, so I thought that I'll visit him in the discussion.

Tohru: About Shigure?

Ayame: Yes, I thought you all knew. Shigure, Hatori and I grew up together in the Sohma's house. We eat together, we sleep together and we go to school together.

Yuki: We already know that? What we wanted to know was how he became such a trick.

Ayame: Well Hatori was the smart, quiet and serious person. I in the other hand was out going and spunky one, so that left Shigure to be the clever and sneaky one. Shigure and I would get together and play prank on Hatori and other people. It was our way of fun, to kill time and to forget all hardship and bad circumstances from our curse. After a while, we grew custom to our fun and it became part our personality. Sometimes, Shigure can play very bad pranks, but he has a very good heart and he means well.

Shigure: Oh, Aya… You're the only one who understands me. I guess that's why I love you.

Yuki: I thought you said that you love Tohru.

Shigure: Oh, yes, I love her too.

Ayame: Shigure!

Shigure: Shh… I'll talk to you later tonight…

Smile: Kyo, why are you so quiet tonight?

Kyo: (no answer)

Smile: I guess that he is still mad.

Everyone: Please review. We love reading your review! Send them in!


	6. Pentagon

**Chapter 6 – Pentagon**

Tohru was in the kitchen preparing dinner. Kyo had not returned home yet, so this disturbed her focus, "Ouch!" she cried. She had accidentally lower her hand to the stove and burned the tip of her index finger.

Yuki quickly grabbed her hand and without a word said he sucked her finger to sooth the burning sensation. Tohru eyes widen and she pulled it away, "I'm okay. It's nothing really." They both looked at each other with concerned.

"Are you still thinking about that stupid cat?" Yuki asked.

"I'm… yes." She replied while holding onto her injured finger. "His hand was bleeding so much this morning. I hope that he had it taken care of."

"Don't worry, that stupid cat should be able to take care of himself. It's all his fault that he got his hand all messed up." Yuki stepped forward and gave Tohru a rub on her shoulder. "And it's not like he has anywhere else to go. He'll be back just like he said."

"Yeah." She agreed softly. "Well, I better finish up cooking. I can't keep you and Shigure waiting forever."

"Do you need any help?" Yuki offered.

"I'm fine." She replied and gave him a big grin. "You and I both know that you're not too well in the kitchen and we don't want to delay dinner anymore that we have already had."

He smiled, "Yeah, you're right." They both laughed.

At this moment, a golden blonde head peeked into the kitchen door. "Big sis?"

"Kisa!" Tohru said surprisingly.

"Good evening." Yuki greeted her.

"Hello." Kisa greeted both them.

"How are you?" Tohru gave Kisa a big welcomed hug. "You're as cute as ever."

"Are you here all alone?" Yuki asked.

"No, I came with Kagura." Kisa replied.

"Kagura? Where is she?" Tohru asked.

"I think she went to look for Kyo." Kisa replied.

"Oh… Kyo is not home." Tohru said looking worried again.

"Big sis…" Kisa looked into Tohru's eyes and gave her a smile.

Kagura came into the kitchen looking for her lover, "KYO! WHERE ARE YOU?"

"Kagura, hi, it's been a while." Tohru greeted her.

"Tohru, do you know where is Kyo? I can't find him anywhere."

Tohru didn't answer.

"He went out and hadn't come back home yet." Yuki replied.

"Oh." Kagura said.

"Dinner will be done soon, would you like to join us?" Tohru asked Kagura and Kisa.

"Yes, please!" Kisa replied. "May I help you prepare?"

"That would be very nice, thank you." Tohru responded.

"I'll help too." Kagura said and then stared at Yuki, "You should leave now. We'll take care of everything from here.

Yuki made a frown, but noticed that Tohru was happy with Kisa's present and he left quietly.

While the girls helped Tohru they started to asked questions. "Big sis?" Kisa started.

"Yes." Tohru replied.

"We heard that you're um… getting married. You're not seriously marrying grandpa Shigure, are you?"

"I don't know. I haven't decided yet."

"Ayame told everyone that you're getting married this summer. He even said that Shigure, Yuki and Kyo all confessed their love to you and that you have a choice between one of them to be your groom." Kagura said not looking too cheerful about the event.

"I don't think that you should marry Grandpa Shigure. The picture of you and him together doesn't look right. I think that you would look better with either Yuki or Kyo. Do you like Yuki more or Kyo more?" Kisa asked innocently.

"I ya…"

"NO, Kyo is mine. I don't care who you marry, but Kyo is mine. You can have Shigure or Yuki or anyone else, but Kyo is mine!" Kagura said aggressively as she fluffed the rice.

'Kagura had always love Kyo and she had never had any problem showing it to anyone. She could be very aggressively, but she knew exactly what she wanted. I envy her.' Tohru thought.

"Tohru." Kagura said her name, but didn't turn around to look at her.

"Yes." She replied to the back of Kagura's dark brown hair.

"I don't like they way that you have Kyo all worked up." Kagura stated. "It's not fair that he loves you! Why can't he love me? You don't deserve him! You don't love him like I do!" Kagura raise her voice shut the rice cooker lid, more like slamming her anger at the non-tangible object.

"Kagura… You shouldn't be angry at Tohru." Kisa said softly.

Kagura lower her voice then looked up to space and said, "I've always love him and you know it. He's the only one that I love. Tohru couldn't even decide if she loves Yuki or Kyo. She kept them all over her… It's not fair…"

Kagura straightforwardness was like a knife cut into Tohru's heart. She dropped her head she could feel her lung compressed as he breathed quickly to fill it. 'Kagura is right. I'm disgusting, why can't I decide? Everyone is suffered because of me. Yuki, Kyo, Kagura and Shigure are all troubled because of me.'

"Tohru, don't be sad." Kisa gave her a hug. "Kagura didn't mean what she said. She's just a little jealous that's all. She's just worried about Kyo."

"I know… but she is right. I shouldn't keep them waiting, I should…. I should…" Tohru's voice started to shake.

Kagura walked up to Tohru and stared at her. "If you can't decide, then I'll just take Kyo from you. You can have Yuki and I'll have Kyo. I'll find a way to make him loves me."

Tohru said nothing her eyes didn't even blink.

"Kagura! You're being mean! Big sis has enough drama as it is. It's difficult for her to choose between Yuki and Kyo. She loves them both and they both love her as much." Kisa exclaimed. "You shouldn't force your way in, you're only going to hurt yourself and end up hurting Kyo as well." She pushed Kagura away from Tohru.

"Tohru, I'm hungry. Is dinner ready yet?" Shigure entered the kitchen and found Kagura brown angry eyes staring at Tohru. "I guess not." He left and thought, 'Something is wrong, Kagura looked mad. I'll bet she's fighting about Kyo. Oh, it's good to be young.'

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Dinner was ready, but still no sign of Kyo. "Come on, let's eat up now." Shigure said smelling his food.

Both Tohru and Kagura were still quiet. Tohru wanted to say something to her, but she didn't know what to say or how to say it, so that Kagura won't get mad at her.

"We don't need to wait for that cat. If he wanted to come home, then he should already be here. He's missing out on delicious dinner and look at that… hmm… oh, yes… salmon. He'll regret this one." Shigure continued to drool at his food.

"Kyo does like salmon." Kagura spoke up. She took a deep breath and exhaled, "Tohru, I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to be… I was just…"

"No, you don't have to apologize." She responded quickly with her hands crossing in front of her. "I totally understand how you feel and you're right. I couldn't choose between Yuki and Kyo. Sometimes, I wished that I were more like you. If I can be straightforward and strong like you, then I would be able to end this and not trouble anymore people about my problems. Everything is my fault…I'm not strong enough. I…" She paused and thought, 'I'm selfish. I want both Yuki and Kyo.'

Kagura managed a small smile. "No, you're very strong and you handled this situation well. I am the weak one. I couldn't control myself. Please forgive me."

"Of course..." Tohru returned the smile.

"That's better." Kisa said softly.

"But, I'm not giving up on Kyo just yet." Kagura said meeting Tohru eyes.

'Oh, Kagura… you love him so much.' Tohru thought.

"What that's all about?" Yuki puzzled.

"Its girl talk… too complicated for just us guys to understand." Shigure replied.

"Hmm…" Yuki wondered.

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**Back Stage Discussion:**

Yuki: What's this? Did Kagura entered our square and made into a pentagon?

Ayame: What about me? Shouldn't it be a hexagon?

Smile: You're not in the love trend, but maybe I'll include you later. No promises though.

Ayame: You're mean! I want to be with my Shigure!

Kagura: I love Kyo! Where is Kyo? Where has he gone to?

Smile: Don't worry he'll be back.

Ayame: Hey read this. It looked like hyper-writer14 is jealous.

_Hyper-writer14: __Dear God Shigure, did Ayame turn you gay? And here I was, beginning to think you actually looked good! There goes a future prospect! And how dare you think that someone else looks better than me when you've never seen me! For the actual ficcy, dear God Yuki! What's wrong with you? Shigure's brainwashing you!_

Yuki: I agree. Shigure is brainwashing me! I couldn't think about anything or anyone else, but Tohru.

Shigure: Well... well, I've never thought that anyone else but Ayame would be jealous over me. She must a killer knock-out to defend herself. I think that I'll visit her house tonight or even better, in her dreams. I'll give her the most extraordinary experience she would ever feel. Hyper-writer14! I'm coming!

Ayame: Shigure! You can't go cheating on me!

Shigure: Aya… I'll never leave you. Let go together!

Kisa: What are they talking about?

Yuki: You don't want to know.

Kisa: Who will Tohru choose? It couldn't be grandpa Shigure, so will it be Yuki or Kyo?

Smile: I've already set my heart on someone.

Kisa: Who?

Smile: It's a secret.

Shigure: You're having fun aren't you? You have all your readers guessing.

Smile: YUP!

Yuki: You guys are cruel! Both of you!


	7. Despair

**Chapter 7 – Despair**

Dinner was over and Shigure walked Kagura and Kisa back home to the Sohma's house.

Tohru and Yuki waved goodbye as they vanished further down in the dark street. Tohru rotated her head and eyes around to see if she could scope Kyo, but it was too dark; she wasn't able to see much of anything and exhaled. "Hah…"

"You're still worried about him." Yuki looked at Tohru with a pair of agonized purple eyes.

"Huh?" Tohru's eyes widen.

"Tohru, I'm here with you now. Why can't you think of me? You've been worrying about the stupid cat all day. Is he more important than I?"

"No."

"Then tell me why?"

"It's because you're here and he's not, that's why I worried. If you were gone missing, then I would worry about you just the same. Plus, he looked very mad when he left and I hope that he didn't go do something else to hurt himself. I felt guilty for letting him go like that."

"Like I said before, that stupid cat got what he sought for. You're not to blame, so don't take it all on yourself. He just never learned how to control that temper of his. Let's go in, we'll both catch cold if we stay here any longer." He took her hand and walked her to her room. "I love you." He said as he leaned down to give her a kiss on the forehead. "Sleep, well."

Tohru blushed at his gentle words and replied, "You, too. Good night." She closed her door and Yuki walked back to his room.

Tohru leaned her back against her closed door and sighed, "Oh Yuki…" She walked toward your window and looked outside, "Oh Kyo…" She stood there for about an hour, but still no sign of Kyo. It was about eleven o'clock and her head had dropped a few times, yet she managed to pull it back up. She was completely exhausted now, after two consecutive days of multiple occurrences one after another, she was wasted. She slowly drifted away and fell asleep leaning against the window panes.

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Tohru's body shivered as she woke up finding herself on the floor underneath the window. "Oh no! I'm going to be late!" She got up and in a jiffy got ready and rushed off to school.

"Tohru, wait!" Yuki came running behind.

They got to class just in time before the morning bell rang. Tohru was in such a hurry that she forgotten about her worries. The homeroom teacher took role. "Kyo Sohma?" No answer. "Does anyone know where he is?" The teacher asked.

'Oh, Kyo; he hasn't return home yet. Where could he be?' Tohru sighed.

Class started and the teacher passed out a questionnaire to everyone. "Please read it carefully and fill this survey out. Take as much time as you need and turn it in by the end of the week."

"What is this for?" One of the students from the class asked.

"This is your last year and many of you haven't make plan for post graduation. This is to aid you in you're planning. Whether you will continue on to college or start working is up to you, but do think about it carefully because your decision affects you as well as the people around you." The teacher replied

Lunch break came quick as Hana and Uo approached Tohru.

"Where is orange-top? Is he sick?" Uo asked.

"No." Tohru replied.

"Is there something going on and you're not tell us?" Uo asked again.

"I sense odd electric signals from you and Yuki today. Something is definitely wrong."

"I'm getting married…" Tohru said in a very low voice.

"What!" Uo exclaimed. "With whom?"

Before Tohru answered the question Momiji and Haru waved, "Hi Tohru! We're heard the news."

"Yo!" Haru greeted Yuki who was standing nearby looking outside the hallway window.

"I'm so happy for you!" Momiji said. "Have you decided who you're going to marry?"

Tohru looked at Yuki then thought of Kyo and shook her head, "Not yet."

"What's this about?" Uo asked.

"You haven't heard the story. It's so romantic!" Momiji filled Uo and Hana in on the story.

"So that's what happened." Hana said then turned to asked Tohru. "You only have two months until graduation. Do you think that you can make up your mind by then? I don't want to see you end up with that crazy author."

Tohru faked a big smile and nodded.

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School was over for the day, Tohru and Yuki walked home together. On their way home an orange cat jumped out from nowhere and startled Tohru. "Ah!"

Yuki swayed his hand and motioned the kitty cat to go away, "Sho..." Apparently, the cat was not Kyo; of course it couldn't be him. The curse was over so he would never transform again. Yuki noticed that Tohru was looking into the blue sky; her head was still in the cloud. 'She's worried about that stupid cat.' He sighed and thought, 'If I was gone missing, would she be worry about me just the same? She said that she would, but… Maybe I should try to do something reckless one of these day… just maybe…'

They came home and the phone immediately rang the second that they entered the house. Tohru ran to catch the phone hoping that it was Kyo on the other end. She picked it up breathing onto the transmitter, "Hello."

"Tohru!" A familiar voice answered, but it wasn't the cat. "Is Kyo home yet?" Kagura asked.

"No, he hasn't return since yesterday." Tohru replied.

"Oh…" Kagura sounded disappointed and Tohru silent.

"Tohru, is something wrong?" Yuki asked with concern.

"No." She quickly said and smiled. "It's Kagura. Yuki, if you don't mind, I would like to talk to her alone." She asked politely.

"Sure." Yuki left to his room.

Kagura continued. "Tohru, I'm going to look for him. I will not lose him to you or anyone. I will do anything for him. I will even die for him." She lowered her voice and bluntly said, "To tell you the truth, if I lose him, then I'll just die. I'll kill myself; I cannot live without him." At that she hung up.

Tohru's eyes narrowed as she dropped the phone and cupped her face in her hands. 'How can Kagura loves him so much? Can I love him as much as she does? Can I die for him? Oh…Kyo…'

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After dinner, Tohru found herself on the porch looking out through the front gate hoping to see Kyo popped his orange head into the door. Every little sound startled her and made her looked. She heard a creaking sound and looked up, "Oh, hi Shigure." She greeted him and leaned the side of her head back against the stud.

"Are you okay? You seem restless tonight. Could it be Kyo?" He asked and seated himself next to her.

"Do you know where he is?"

Shigure shook his head.

"Should we go look for him?"

Shigure shrugged his shoulders.

"Where could he have been gone to?" She asked with misty eyes.

"Oh, Tohru." He pulled her into a hug. "Did you fell in love with the cat and didn't realized it?" He asked with a flat and serious tone.

Her eyes wide opened. "Did I?" She buried her face into Shigure's robe, "But Kagura is in love with him. She loves him so much!"

"What about you, do you love him?"

"I don't know. I just want to see him again." She cried.

Shigure lifted her chin up for a gentle kiss on the lips. The sudden kiss stopped her cried and she blushed. "Thank you…" She rested her head onto his lap as he ran his fingers in her hair from the top to the tip of her long hair. 'This feels nice.' She thought and slept.

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**Back Stage Discussion:**

Ayame: _Dark ember flames_ asked if you're gay, Shigure.

Shigure: No way! I'm not gay. I'm bisexual.

Ayame: Read this one, _Sohma Memi _said that Hatori is innocent.

Shigure: Oh dear, of course he is innocent. (he he) That's what made it so fun to prank him.

Kagura: Where is my Kyo?

Yuki: I don't care if that cat ever comes back.

Tohru: Kyo, please come back. I missed you.

Everyone: THANK YOU for all the awesome reviews! WE LOVE THEM! This fic would not have gotten this far without them, so continue to send them in.

Kyo: Send in the damn review if you read the story! I'll be back in the next chapter!


	8. Aroused Emotion

**Chapter 8 – Aroused Emotion**

Shigure woke up to find the kitchen empty. There was no sweet scent of Tohru or her wonderful cooking. The hungry Shigure came in contact with his younger cousin in the hallway and asked, "Yuki, have you seen Tohru?"

Yuki was still trying to wake up. He rolled his eyes at the annoying cousin and shook his head.

At this moment, Tohru rushed out from her bedroom and fumbled down the stairs; she dropped face down and landed her forehead on the hardwood floor. "Oh…" She sighed. Her fall made a racket and the two cousins came to find her sitting on her butt, rubbing her head.

"Are you okay?" Yuki asked offering her a hand to help her stood up. She wobbled and fell right onto his chest. "Tohru… you're burning up!"

"No, I'm okay. I need to start breakfast and get ready for school." She replied.

"You can't go to school like this." Yuki said holding firmly to her warm body.

"But, I need to… for mom and everyone… and the questionnaire are due today…"

"Give it to me and I can turn it in for you."

"But…"

"No buts… You need to rest. Come, I'll take you to your room." Shigure said earnestly and Tohru accepted his welcomed arms wrapped around her. "Yuki, I can handle it from here, so you can go now… leave."

"Where did you put your survey? I'll go get it." Yuki asked Tohru.

"I left it on the kitchen counter last night when I was fixing dinner. I think that it's still there. Thank you so much, Yuki. I'm so sorry to have trouble you." Tohru smiled tiredly.

"No, it's no trouble at all." He replied to her and locked his eyes fiercely on his older cousin, "Don't you think of any dirty while I'm gone."

"Don't worry. I'm not gonna do anything, not when she's sick anyways." He snickered back.

"Okay. I'll see you later." Yuki said to her and left.

"Come let's go to your room." Shigure escorted her upstairs.

"What about your breakfast?"

"I'll find something, so don't worry." He opened the door and a breeze immediately showered his face. "Oh my, you left your window open."

She looked up to the opened window. "I guessed that I fell asleep and forgot to close it." She replied.

Shigure walked her to her bed and then shut the window. He got curious and asked, "What did you mean by falling asleep and forgot? Did you left the window open all night? What were you doing? You didn't sleep by the window, did you?"

Tohru peeked up from her blanket looking distressed. "This is all that I can do… I'm not as outgoing as Kagura. She is able to go out on her own to look for Kyo, but I can't. I don't have the courage to leave and go look for him, so instead I wait. I've been staring out my window hoping that Kyo will just pop his head through it and greet me with his smile. Am I a fool to be doing this? I got sick over my own carelessness."

"Everyone becomes a fool when he or she is in love." Shigure stated.

"Love?" She questioned. "Is that why I'm acting this way? Am I in love? How can know which is which? I mean… I know that I love you and Yuki and Kyo, but how can I know who it is that I'm in love with? I mean like a boy girl relationship kinda love." She asked Shigure.

He came and sat next to her. "How should I say this? Love is a very tricky emotion. There are so many ways to love and each person expresses it differently. There is a kinda of love that you share with your parents and it's a special bond between parents and child that can never be broken. There is also a love that you share with your friends where you find interaction, amusement, comfort and development of your growth and experience together. Then there is another love that you share between just you and one other person. This person may or may not be chosen by you, yet somehow you'll become affectionate to him or her; the love will build up intimate desire, longing to be closer and to be acknowledged by that other person. This one can be very demanding and challenging to keep up. This love is different for everyone, it can bring you laughter, it can bring you the most memorable moment in your life that you can cherish forever, but it can also bring your tears and sometimes it could even bring you the most painful and unbearable moment of them all." He paused and placed his hands on Tohru's, "Basically, it's different for everyone. Yet the core still remains a single question."

Shigure was so serious that he got Tohru fluttered and her head sank deeper into her pillow. "A question?" She managed to ask.

"Yes, to help you answer your question; you must answer this question. Who takes your breath away? What I mean is the one person that made your heart pound so hard that you felt that world doesn't exist; you can only hear your heart beats and your craving for more and you don't want to stop, but yearning for more and more."

"Have you ever felt this way about anyone?" She asked him.

He looked at Tohru's flushed expression and answered her, "Yes, I have and still am." He smiled.

'Should I ask him who it is?' She thought. 'Or is it me?' Her question showed on her face.

"Oh Tohru, you want to you who it is, don't you?" He laughed.

She nodded.

He sang. "It's a… se…cret."

"Shigure!"

"Now, you should sleep. Don't strain yourself and I think I know where we can find Kyo, so once you're all better, I'll go and get him."

"Really?"

"Yes." He leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the forehead. Tohru smiled while he left and closed the door behind him.

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"Kyo! Don't walk away from me!" Kagura grabbed onto his sleeve.

"Leave me alone!" He shook her off.

"You've been ignoring me for days, so you better be nice to me now!" She demanded.

"I don't care! Just leave me alone!"

"Kyo!"

"Stop following me!" He hollered to her face. She looked hurt.

"Kyo, you jerk!" She sent him flying from a ferocious punch into his abdomen and he landed twenty feet away from her. She quickly ran over and sat on his stomach spreading her thighs against his waist and her knees bent back on each side lied flat on the ground as she stared at her love. "Kyo, you know that I love you, so why do you treat me like this? Why do you always push me away? Why can't you accept me?" She asked looking straight into his angry red eyes.

He growled, "I just… I just don't! I don't like you! Who but in hell can be in love with your torture!"

"Why do you have to be so mean?" She cried. "I need you… I…" She leaned forward and kissed him right on the lips.

Kyo eyes widen and pushed her off and got up onto his feet.

"Kyo! I love you!" She shouted to the back of his orange hair.

"I've already said that I… I can't!" He walked toward his master's dojo.

"Then why do you love her? Why her? And not me?"

The thought of Tohru struck his mind, yet he tried to pretend to be ignorant. "Who are you talking about?"

"Don't play dump with me. You know who I'm talking about. There is only one person between us."

He sighed and lowered his voice. "Just leave me alone, okay? I need some time to think."

Kyo walked into his the dojo and Kagura followed behind.

Their master greeted them as they came in. "Kyo. Kagura." He continued, "Kyo, I have a message for you from Shigure."

"But, how did he know that I'm here?"

"I think that it's pretty obvious. You don't have anywhere else to go to and it's been almost week, so I guess he's worried."

"That damn dog worried, yeah right." Kyo smirked.

"He said that he can care less about where you go or what you do, but Tohru is sick and…"

"Tohru is sick? No…" Kyo's voice dropped.

"He said that your absent had a great effect on her. She couldn't sleep, she couldn't eat and she often spaced out and couldn't concentrate." His master continued.

Kyo couldn't believed what he had just heard, 'Tohru, why? Is it because… No... That girl worries about everyone. Anyone's absent would worried her the same.' He thought. 'Stupid! Stupid! I should have known better than to let her worry herself to sick.' He threw his fists together, 'I didn't even think about her; all I thought of was me… I'm such an idiot!' He paused in his thoughts and remembered the reason why he left and groaned, 'But what is it that she's hiding something from me. Why couldn't she tell me? I've been cracking my brain out trying to figure out why.' He finally exhaled his overheated tension. "Arrrr! Why? Tohru!"

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"Kyo? It couldn't be. I've must be imaging thing." Tohru spoke sleeplessly to her pillow. For some reason, she thought that she heard his voice calling her name. Slowly she drifted to sleep.

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"Kyo, are you going back to her? Please don't… Yuki can take care of her. I want you to stay here and we can be together like this, just the two of us. Please…" Kagura begged.

"Can you just quit it? I'm tired and whatever I do is my business." He left her and walked away to find the roof top of the dojo. He lied staring at the blue sky, 'Should I go back now?'

Kagura was left behind feeling aggravated. "Kyo, you jerk! Can't you see that I love you?" She fell onto her knees, "I need you… you're my only love."

"Kagura, I know that you have great feeling for Kyo, but you shouldn't force him to return those feelings." Her master said.

"Master? I don't understand." She said. "Why? Am I not better than Tohru? She isn't as pretty as me nor doesn't she know more about Kyo than I do, so why does he like her more than I?"

"Love is an explainable feeling; it has no boundaries or comparison of any source. I can see that you love him, but he's disturbed and confused right now. He's been here training for a week, but what I've seen so far were not any training that I had given to him. He's lost his center and his perplexity is building up. You need to give him time for him to straighten out what's bothering him. Try to reach him slowly and maybe approach him in a different way. He may appreciate that better."

"But…" She said and her master shook his head with the lightest motion and smiled. 'But, I want him now. I've waited long enough.' She thought to herself.

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School let out and Yuki ran home as fast as he could. On his way home he stormed by his garden, he realized that he had planted some leeks and thought, "Maybe I could cook these for her." He said to himself as he pulled out the vegetables. He came home and found Shigure sitting in the living room with his face in his palm and his finger tabbing the table above his legs.

"Hey, Yuki wanna go out and get some dinner. I don't think Tohru will be able to cook tonight."

"Yeah, sure. How is Tohru doing?"

"She's sleeping." Shigure replied and saw Yuki was hiding something in his hand. "What's that you've got in your hands? Leeks?" He examined Yuki's sudden embarrassment. "Are you going to cook that for Tohru?"

"Mind your own business." Yuki snapped and walked away. 'I'm not sure if this is a good idea. The stupid cat is better at this than I am, but I need to try… for her.' He went into the kitchen and started cooking.

Shigure came in later to find a burnt pot of leek soup. He covered his mouth and chuckled, "You've just can't cook, could you? It's not part of your gene."

"Shut up! Like you can do better?" Yuki shouted back at his annoying cousin.

"Okay let go and get dinner. We can get some soup for Tohru, so what do you say?"

"K."

They ate out and brought home some porridge for Tohru. Yuki came up to her room and knocked on her door.

"Come in." She said.

"Hi, Tohru, are you feeling any better?" He asked.

"Yes, much, thank you." She sat up and smile.

"We've got you some porridge." He brought it to her bed stand. She smiled again. Yuki approached her and checked her temperature. "Yeah, it's cooler now."

"Yeah. A whole day of sleep helps." She said in her sweet voice, "Thank you for the food." She helped herself with the soup.

"Tohru, I kinda read your survey this morning…"

"Yeah?"

"So you want to be a Veterinarian and maybe do something that involved with taking care of animals. May I ask why?"

"Remember that orange cat that jumped out the other day?" She asked.

"Yah?" He replied as he narrowed his eyes and thought, 'That stupid cat!' He felt like grinding his teeth together and let irritation out, but manage to hold it in and exhaled.

"He appeared out of nowhere and it was on the day that we received the survey. He scared me half to death, but he was so cute. He reminded me of Kyo and of the Sohma's curse. Remember how you and Kyo used to transform into animals, you guys were sooooo cute. Then there was this one time with Hatori when he transformed and I couldn't do anything to help him and I felt so helpless. This made me realized that I love animal, but don't know much about them, so I decided I'll continue working and manage me way through college. If possible then I'll become a doctor, if not then I'll settle with working in a pet shop and maybe earned enough money to open one of my own someday. What about you? What are your plans?"

"I'm thinking of something in martial art. Since that's the only thing I can do without breaking or burning anything." Yuki sighed. "I tried to cook you some leek soup earlier today and ended up burning the thing to a crisp."

"It's the thought that count. Thank you." She smiled. "I remembered the last time that I was sick, Kyo made me some leek soup and it was so nice of him." She peeked at the window and let out a little sigh.

"Why do you have to bring up that stupid cat every time?" Yuki couldn't hold it anymore and he snapped at her. He grabbed hold of her arms, "Tohru, look at me! Am I not good enough to replace that orange cat? Where is he now? He can careless about you. He abandoned you. If he loves you, then why hasn't he come back yet?"

"Yuki, I'm sorry… I didn't mean to…"

"Since he left, all you've been thinking of was that stupid cat!" He continued. A thought struck his head, 'Could this be the cat's strategy to get to Tohru? No, it couldn't be; he's too stupid to plan this, but his absent had a great effect on her. Could it be that she…? No… not that stupid cat!'

"Yuki, what are you doing?"

He climbed onto her bed and sat in front of her. He examined her; he could tell from the look of her eyes that she was still confused and hesitant. "I want you to think of me and only me." He said as he reached for her shoulders and slid her body down on her back. "I want you to be mine." He dropped his head down to brace her lips with his. He kissed her warm and gently.

After a few seconds he moved down to her neck. "Yuki…" She felt her body burning up again. She closed her eyes, 'This is not right.' A strong urge inside of her was telling her to stop. "Yuki, please stop." She tried to push him off, but he seized her arms and legs with his and continued kissing. "No!" She cried and an image of an orange cat appeared before her. He was sitting on her window panes looking straight at her. He had the same intense red eyes as Kyo had. "Kyo." The name slipped out her pink lips. Something inside of Yuki broke when he heard that name, the name of his rival; it took control and got him more aggressive. "Yuki, please…!" He couldn't hear her and continued on, going lower toward her chest. Tears broke out and Tohru sobbed. She somehow managed to pull away, hugging herself on the edge of her bed. "Please… (hic-cup) this (hic-cup) is (hic-cup) not you…" Her words came in slow, but were as loud as day.

Yuki was left on his hands and knees. 'What have I done?' He thought. He shook his head and quickly lifted his body to see Tohru; she was shaking her eyes looked frighten. "Tohru, I'm so sorry. I didn't know what came over me." He felted disgusted.

"Please… just leave… I want to be alone now." She managed to say in between her cried.

He apologized again, "I'm sorry," then whispered as he left the room, "It's just that… I love you so much."

Tohru met his eyes before he left, he looked miserable. She understood how much he loved her, but her heart wasn't responding; it was pounding, but the beats were irregular and they confused her. The moment that she saw the cat's image something deep inside of her arouse. She rolled up her knees and hugged them tightly in her arms. She tried to shake off what happened and whispered to her arms, "Kyo, I want you here…with me…now."

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It must be the middle of the night. Someone was pounding on the window of Tohru's bedroom. The noise woke up the restless Tohru as she looked up her eyes formed a thin layer of shiny mist and she opened the window. The tall figure climbed in. "Kyo!" She threw herself into his arms and sobbed. "Why did it take you forever to come home?" He immediately held her in his arms, squeezed her fragile body as tight as he could and inhaled deeply. The breeze from the opened window helped them clung onto each other warmth. Tohru rubbed her head against his chest soaking his shirt with her tears. "I'm so happy." She said. Kyo remained silent and held her close; he didn't want to let her go. She could hear his heartbeat as it grew faster and faster every second. She lifted her head up and saw the disoriented expression from Kyo's eyes; he looked hurt. 'Did I hurt him? I'm hurting everyone around me.' Her eyes narrowed as she thought of the pain she given him and everyone else.

"I didn't want to come back." He said.

"No, please don't say that." She said softly to his shirt.

"I've been thinking a lot… about us… Yuki and Shigure…" He continued. "I decided… If you can't give me a straight answer, then I'll… I'll leave you alone. I don't want to hurt you and I don't want to be in this love triangle or square or whatever shapes it formulated."

"Kyo, please…" She begged. 'I won't be able to control my feelings if he goes on like this. What about Yuki? What about Kagura?'

Kyo leaned down and whispered into her ears, "I love you." She gripped firmer onto the back his shirt and formed two fists. She realized now that she had strong feelings for him. He walked forward still holding onto her waist as she stepped backward until there was no more space between her legs and her bed frame. She dropped down onto her bed and Kyo followed her. Kyo lied on top of her and she remained still as her heart pounded quickly and louder…thud thud...thud thud…thud thud. He could her heart beat raced, 'What does this mean?' He risen his head; his crimson red eyes met Tohru's blue ones. "Tohru do you love me?" He asked.

"I… I…" She said quickly as she grasped for air. Her heart pounded so hard that she felt that it could have jumped out of her body.

He leaned forward and gently pressed his lips against her and drew back. "Tell me, am I such a fool like the rat said? Am I not worthy for you to trust me? Why couldn't you tell me what happened? Did Shigure do something inappropriate to you? Or is it Yuki? Do you love him? Is that it? I am such a fool that I'm not worthy of your love…" Kyo said with such bitterness in his voice.

Tohru couldn't help but felt her heart broken at his word, her eyes narrowed and tears came upon her face, 'Why do I always cry when it comes to Kyo? Please… stop, you're going to worry him with your tears…'

"Why?" Kyo shouted with a hard punch into the bed. The bed responded to the pressure of his force and Tohru's body bounced up and quickly back down. "I understand… this is how it is… you can't accept me…" He slowly pulled away. "I guess this is goodbye then. I'll leave you alone."

"Kyo!" She grabbed his hand and pulled herself up. Instantaneously, she pressed her lips against his. He fumbled back a few steps, surprised as his eyes opened up and glowed. He returned her kiss and squeezed her hips against him. Her body was so warm. He deepened the kiss as she welcomed him entered her mouth. Tohru gripped on tighter as Kyo sank deeper into her. Their hearts rose in the same rhythm and they continued to share this moment together. They learned each others lips until their lungs collapsed. They dropped down onto the floor and grasps for air. Kyo ran his fingers into Tohru's dark long hair and smiled. "I love you."

Tohru returned his smile and wrapped her arms around him and breathlessly she said as tear drops made their way out, "I love you. I love you…" She cried against in his chest.

The three words that he wanted to hear had finally escaped her soften lips. He embraced her closer and inhaled her scent. "Tohru…" He said her name and felt at ease, contented and relieved.

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Back Stage Discussion:

Ayame: Oh no! I think that I've made dark ember flames upset. I'm soooooo sorry! Yes, you did ask Shigure if he was bie, but I guessed that I've missed that! My bad! (sniff sniff) Please forgive me!

Shigure: Calm down.

Ayame: It's all your fault! You had me stayed up all night! I think I'll write a letter to apologize.

Shigure: I couldn't let your beautiful face sleep without getting a moan out of you. The sound of your voice was so… intriguing… succulent… so ripe that it kept me going. I thought you liked it.

Ayame: Well…I.

Shigure: Admit it! You're the one that turned me on! You started it!

Ayame: I just couldn't get enough of you…

Kyo: OH HELL! Just kill me now! My skin is crawling!

Shigure: And, Aya… you don't want to write her that letter.

Ayame: Why not?

Shigure: She might misunderstand that thinks that it's a love letter and you're not interest in girls are you?

Ayame: Then you do it, for me?

Shigure: No, I'm still fluttered about hyper-writer14.

Ayame: Shigure!

Shigure: You'll need to help me forget… again… tonight…

Kyo: Quit this nonsense! You guys are driving me crazy!

Tohru: What is wrong with them? Can I help?

Kyo: No! You stay out of this!

Shigure: Oh, Tohru… You'll know very soon once you get married.

Tohru: Okay… Kyo, should I tell Shigure about us?

Yuki: About us? What do you mean? Did you choose that stupid cat?

Kagura: Don't call him stupid! And I'm not going to let Tohru take him… just you wait…until the next chapter…

Kyo: Damn it! I've just got back with Tohru! Don't you dare messing with me! SEND IN YOUR DAMN REVIEWS! I need to know what's next!


	9. Scattered Moments

**Chapter 9 – Scattered Moments**

The young couple was preoccupied with the purest intention and had forgotten about the world around them. At this moment, all they wanted was to be closer to each other. The night was getting colder as the breezes invaded into the dark room through the window. Tohru shivered and clung closer to Kyo's warmth. He held her closer rubbing her icy cold arms and quickly remembered her current state.

"You should get back to bed." He said.

"No, I want to be with you… like this." She clung on closer.

"No, you need rest. You're still sick." He pulled away, stood up and shut the window.

"Kyo, I…"

"Sh…" He scooped the sick Tohru in his arms. She leaned her head against his chest while he carried her to bed. He gently lowered her onto the mattress and tucked her in. She looked up quickly to meet his eyes looking down. They both smiled.

"Kyo…" She stretched out her hand and slightly pulled the fabric of his cargo pants. "Please promise me that you'll never leave again."

He stood at the side of her bed still looking down admiring her glowing blue eyes in the dark. They were like the eyes of a child so innocent but scared at the same time. A little crease appeared on Kyo's face as he put his weight down onto the edge of her bed. He leaned forward and gently brushed his lips over her and said, "No, I will never leave you again. I promised."

"Kyo!" She instantly wrapped her arms under his and over his back pulling him closer to her. He buried his arms into the blanket and underneath her body responding to her happiness and dropped his head face down beside her. She grasped for air and whispered to his ear, "Can you stay with me here tonight?" She asked.

The question startled him as he lifted his weight off her. He stared at the sparkling eyes that were smiling, pleading for his comfort. He couldn't help but inhaled deeply and held on to this moment. The thought filled him with an indescribable happiness. "I love to, but I shouldn't…" He slowly pulled away and sat up.

"Please…" She begged. "I want to know that this is true and not just a dream." She grabbed onto his sleeves, "I didn't understand before…" Her heart started to rise. "…but on the day you left, something inside of me was burning. I felt so useless. I didn't know what was happening or how to stop it. Then Kagura came and said that she loved you." Her voice started to break, "She even said… that… she'll die… for you…" Her eyes glowed from the forming mist. "I felt bitter and the burning sensation got hotter and it was eating me up inside. I wanted to go out and look for you, but I had no lead and I didn't have the courage to leave. All I could do was waiting. Each night, I looked out through the window waiting for you, minute passed then hours then when I couldn't remember anymore I slept under the opened window."

"Tohru…" Kyo drew her up into an embrace. "I'm sorry..."

"No, you did nothing wrong. Your absent actually help me realized something important. I understand now… I need you… please stay with me… I want to hold on to this moment." She pleaded.

"Tohru…" He squeezed her tighter. "Just for tonight… I'll stay just for you…"

"Kyo…" Tears of happiness escaped her blue eyes.

The young lovers lied together leaning the side of their head on the same fluffy pillow. Kyo wrapped his arms around Tohru breathing her scent through her chestnut hair. Her body was warm and her skin felt soft against his arms. Not a single word was said. They continued to be in this position until both wore out and slept soundlessly under the same cover.

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The next morning went by quietly not until noon when an unexpected visitor came and unexpected event started to happen one after another. The visitor knocked on the door of the sick girl, but received no answer. Shigure was also standing in front of the door. He shrugged his shoulders and slowly opened it. He and the visitor were caught by surprise to find Tohru and Kyo together in the same bed.

"What is this?" The visitor asked.

"Beat me…" Shigure sniffed and burst out his fate tears, "Tohru is cheating on me! Wahhh…"

The distributing cry of his older cousin woke the sleeping cat, "HELL!" He immediately jumped off the bed.

"Did we disturb you?" The visitor asked.

"Hatori, what are you doing here?" The cat asked.

"Shigure said that Tohru is sick, so I came to see if she is okay." He replied.

The noisy cousin then asked, "What are you doing here with Tohru? I thought that you're never going to come back and here I find you sleeping with my fiancée."

"I… um…" Kyo started.

"Well, I did say that I didn't mind, but I never said that you can take her like that."

"Nothing happen you jerk! I'm not like you!" Kyo responded.

"Really, then what was that just now? We witnessed it! You slept with her…"

"I was just comforting her."

"Come on, Kyo, tell us the truth. Don't tell me that you didn't have any urge or desire around the lovely Tohru."

Kyo couldn't control his temper and jumped on his naughty cousin, "No! You sick bastard!" He smacked Shigure right on the chin. The commotion woke up the sick Tohru and she slowly opened her eyes and met a pair of dark hazel ones.

"Good afternoon." Hatori greeted her. "Are you feeling any better? Shigure said that you had a fever."

"I think that I'm okay now. I don't have any headache or flushes." She replied.

"Well, we just have to make sure of it. Please sit up and let me check on your temperature."

Tohru followed the doctor's instruction and seated her body up leaning her head against the headboard. Then she caught the sight of Kyo pounding Shigure on the floor and cheerfully smiled. It looked like Kyo was fitting right back in. The two disordered men stood up and came over to her bed as the doctor examined her.

"Well, it looked like you're just fine, but I suggest that you rest for another day to regain your strength." The young doctor advised.

"Thank you." Tohru said with her sweetest voice ever. "I think that I should be okay. Now that Kyo is back… I'm so happy." Her statement made the cat blushed pink. "I think that I should make a big lunch to welcome him back and to thank you for coming to check up on me."

"No! You heard the man. You need to rest a little bit more." The cat exclaimed.

"But I couldn't…" She argued.

"Yes… you rest…" He sighed. "I'll… I'll cook."

"My… my… Our Kyo is worried about Tohru… Isn't that cute?" Shigure smirked.

"Shut up!" At that, Kyo signaled for the two older men to leave. Before he shut the door behind him, he heard her voice said, "Thank you."

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Kyo wasn't a bad cook but compared to Tohru his cooking was nothing close to her. He opened the refrigerator and the smell of leeks almost suffocated him. He quickly covered his nose and to dig to see if he could find something else. Before he could continued a pair of pale arms wrapped around his neck and almost choked him to death.

"Kyo!" Kagura happily yelled his name. "Why did you leave me? I thought that we could be together, and you left without saying a word."

He chocked, "You're… kill…ing… me…"

"Opps… I was so happy. I'm sorry." She apologized. "What are you doing?"

"Cook… food… starving!" Still, he breathed out each word as he regained his normal breathing.

"You don't have to do that. I'll cook for you."

"No!"

"I insist. Now you go out and sit with Shigure, I should be done very quickly." She pushed him out of the kitchen and started up the stove.

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Kyo joined the other in the living room. Yuki came down from the stairs and immediately noticed his orange hair cousin was back. "I see you finally decided to come home." He smirked.

"It's none of your business." Kyo snapped as he turned his head away and whispered to himself, "I almost forgot about that damn rat."

"Expect the unexpected." Shigure said. "And guess where we found him?"

"Don't you dare!" Kyo locked a pair of hot fierce red eyes on his cousin dark brown ones. His eyes are seeping flame warning the older cousin that misfortune will come if he tells.

"Relax… I think Yuki should know and I need a third opinion on the situation. I think that he would find it dubious too."

"What? Or where did you find him?"

He coughed once then twice and said, "In Tohru's bed."

Yuki didn't even say a word, just stood there and examined the cat that he hated so much. Thoughts ran through his mind, 'Why? Tohru must have chosen him over me, but why don't I feel any anger? Is it because of last night? Or is it something else? I actually… feel relieved… that the cat came back, odd.'

"Why are you standing there like a zombie? So, what do you think happened between them? I'm sure that Kyo had something under his sleeves that he's not telling us."

Shigure comment broke his train of thoughts and he replied to the dog, "Nah… He's too stupid. I doubt anything happened."

"What did you say you damn rat? I've just got home and you want to stir up a fight. I'm not going to lose this time! Let take it outside!" Kyo shouted.

Yuki narrowed his eyes and quickly realized the true reason why he wasn't furious at the idea that Kyo and Tohru were getting together. He knew exactly what had driven him to Tohru and what had caused him to react inappropriate last night. He then sneered at his over tempered cousin, "If it a fight you want, then I shall not lose." He paused and with a more confident look, "I will never lose." He added.

"You damn rat!" Kyo was about to jump over the table, but was pulled back by Hatori. "Hell! Let me go! I must kill that… that girly… rat!"

"That's enough, sit." Hatori ordered. "Tohru is still resting."

"Ugh…!" Kyo dropped onto his butt and sat next to Hatori.

"Lunch is ready!" Kagura came out and set the table with sashimi, grilled mackerels, green salad and pickled vegetable.

"Wow, this look great, Kagura! Hmm… and they smell good too. I'm so hungry. Should we call Tohru and ask her to join us?" Shigure asked.

"No, I heard that she is sick right? I'll bring her some food, so why don't you boys enjoy and I'll check on her." Kagura insisted. "Yuki, come and sit down. You don't want the food to get cold now."

Yuki came over and sat next to the dog which made him face the cat. Kagura took a seat at the edge between Kyo and Yuki. She served the rice to each man then she excused herself upstairs to check on the sick girl.

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Knock. Knock. Knock.

Tohru answered, "Come in."

"Hi, Tohru. You must be hungry. I've got you some food." Kagura greeted her and place the food on top of her bed stand.

Tohru was a little edgy to see Kagura. For the little time that she had with Kyo last night, she had put aside everything and everyone. Now she remembered Kagura… Yuki… and Shigure… 'What should I said to them? It will hurt no matter what I do or say, but how can I say it so that it hurt less?' She thought.

"Tohru, is something wrong?" Kagura asked.

"No…" She quickly covered up with a smile. "Thank you so much. I'm sorry to bother you with my duties. I should be the one cooking and serving. After all I'm the hostess."

Kagura returned the smile, "No, it my job to serve my man. There is no problem at all."

"Your man?" Tohru sounded confuse.

"Yes, my man… my Kyo." Kagura replied.

"Kyo?"

"Yes, Kyo and I… you see… the last couple of days and we've been very close."

"Close?"

"Yes, very."

Tohru dropped her head and felt her blood broiling. "What you do mean by that?" She tried to keep her voice as polite as usual.

"When I found him at this master's place training, he was lost and out of control. He didn't know what to do. I tried to calm him, but he refused any help from anyone. Then when he thought that no one in this world cared him, I told him that I'll always be with him. He opened up to me. We even…"

"I don't believe you." Tohru said with a flat voice as she looked up to meet Kagura's brown eyes.

"Why?" Her brown eyes widen.

"He said… that he loves me." She spoke timidly.

"Tohru, he's just lying. He doesn't want to lose to Yuki, so he made up that lie to win you over. Who would know him better than me? I knew him since we were children playing tag and I know every detail about Kyo. I even knew exactly where to find for him."

Tohru admitted that Kagura did know more about Kyo and she did, but that didn't mean that Kyo loved Kagura more than her. How could he lie to her? Not after last night, it couldn't be just a dream. "No you're lying!" Her voice broke. "He couldn't have. How could he?" She fought her thoughts, 'His kiss… was touching… he couldn't be lying. He would never do such thing to me. I love him.' A filmed started to cover her blue eyes.

"Tohru, please you need to let him go. I need him more than you do. Can't you see? I love him, too." Kagura begged. "You have Yuki and Shigure and everyone else loves you. I only have Kyo. Kyo is the only one that I love. Please let him go…"

"I…" She could hear her heart pounding again. 'What should I do? Kagura looked so sad, but what about Kyo? Does he loves me or does he love her?' She shook her head franticly and said, "I can't… I can't…"

"Tohru! I'll die…"

"Don't say that… You cannot do that… taken your life away… that's not fair."

"If I cannot have Kyo, what is there for me to live for? All my life, I dreamt to be his wife and if you take that dream away from me then I'll just… I'll just kill myself."

"Please don't. I can't… What about Kyo? How does he feel about this? I can't do this to him…"

"Tohru, I know what… come by Kyo's room in an hour, and I'll show you that he wouldn't mind at all. Like I said earlier, Kyo and I had been very close and I'll show you how closed we've gotten."

Somehow, Tohru felt ill and her lungs collapsed at those words. Did something really happen between Kyo and Kagura? She didn't answer to Kagura last comment. She looked away sadly and continued to ponder her thoughts. 'If Kyo and Kagura did, then what should I do?'

Kagura's plan was taking effect as she said. "Kyo is my man… When you find out… please leave him. Even if he said that he loves you, you must leave him because he belongs to me…" Kagura walked out and lightly shut the door. She leaned her head against it and spoke to herself softly, "Tohru, I'm sorry, but I just couldn't give Kyo to anyone, not even you. Please forgive me…"

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**Back Stage Discussion:**

Kagura: Please don't hate me.

Tohru: What is she up to?

Smile: I can't spoil the fun yet… Just wait and see…

Yuki: Am I out of the love trend?

Smile: No, not yet.

Kyo: What does that mean? You're not going to pair me up with that witch are you?

Kagura: Who are you calling a witch? I'm just acting accordingly to the script.

Shigure: Wow! More angst is coming up. I can tell.

Smile: Hey, I need some help with the following abbreviation. I'm tried to figure them out but just couldn't. I guess you could tell that I don't socialize much. (ha ha… I forgot to laugh.) What are AU, LOL, LMAO, and OOC?

Shigure: How dense can you be?

Smile: Well, I could be very dull from time to time, so please help.


	10. Shattered Heart

**Chapter 10 – Shattered Heart **

Lunch was over and Hatori went home to the Sohma's house. Shigure was left with his two younger cousins and oddly he sensed no tension between them. Curiously he winked and asked, "Is there something that I should know?" Both boys exchanged glances and to Shigure's surprise no answer or neither a fuss. Each boy was trying to collect in what happened last night with Tohru. Yuki stood up and said that he needed a breather and walk out to the yard. Kyo also excused him and headed for his room.

Kyo went passed his room and was about to give Tohru a visit, but changed his mind and decided to let her rest. He walked back to his room and noticed that the door was slightly opened. He didn't recalled opening it this morning, but he hadn't been home for a week, so someone must had entered his room and didn't shut it properly. With that thought in mind he entered his room and didn't notice anything different whatsoever. He slide another set of doors and stepped out to the balcony where he saw Yuki sitting on a large rock in the yard staring into space. Yuki looked like he was deep in thoughts. 'That damn rat.' Kyo thought to himself. 'He's acting weird today.' He couldn't decide what was wrong with Yuki or was it he the person that was feeling weird today. For some unknown reason, he felt at ease looking over this cousin like this. Before he let the thought sank in any deeper he decided to take a cat nap and walked back inside.

He rested his bottom on his bed, crossed his hand behind his head and dropped his body down lying onto the mattress. At this moment, he felt something moving on his bed. He quickly stood up and pulled his crumbled blanket away.

"Kyo!" A naked body threw itself at him.

"Kagura! What are you doing here?" He asked while trying not to look at her.

"I've been waiting… I've missed you."

"What do you mean?" He started to blush as she rubbed against him.

"Come on, don't play dumb. A girl is willingly offering herself to you, why don't you take advantage of it and play along." She teased as she grabbed his hands and placed them on her hips. He pulled them away. She stepped forward and forced him against the wall. "Are you a man or aren't you?"

"What?" He lowered his eyes and met hers.

"A man will never let a pretty girl like me walked away and do nothing." She snickered.

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The hour that Tohru was waiting for had come. She was still in bed and hadn't eaten anything since Kagura left. She tried to keep her faith and believed that Kyo had nothing to do with Kagura, but the more she thought about it the more uncertain she had become. The minute drew near as she fought her conscience, 'Should I go?'

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Back in cat's room, Kagura kept Kyo's occupied. He had never been in a situation like this before. This was the first time that any girl would go to this extreme to get his attention. Although, in the past he would see Kagura transformed and turned back into her human form naked, but it was only a quick glance from time to time and it never gave him any impression.

Right now, his curiosity took loose and his eyes quickly rolled down and back up again. The girl in front of him, no she had become a woman in all the right places.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk... Bad Kyo, where were you looking at?" She smirked.

"Nothing."

"I see you're a man after all."

"Of course, I'm a man!" He growled.

"Then are you going to take me like the man you are?" She teased as she ran her fingers along the side of his face and down to his neck rubbing his adam's apple.

Her touch made his shivered and he felt a little tension building up underneath his skin. "Stop it!" He demanded as he tried to control himself.

"Kyo." She wrapped her arms around him rubbing her bare chest against his. "How far do I need to go to show you how much I love you?"

"Kagura…" Kyo raised his elbows and rested both of his hands on her shoulders. She looked up to meet his bright crimson eyes. "This is not going anywhere." He started trying very hard to control his hormone and not let it control him. "You know me better than anyone. Though, I don't admit it, I do love you." Kagura breathed and smiled, but her smile ceased as Kyo continued, "I love you like a sister."

"No! This is not the love that I want from you." She rubbed her head against his chest.

He turned his head away and looked out to the blue sky through his sliding doors. "This is all I can give you."

"Kyo." She slowly lifted her body off him a few inches to get his attention. He turned back and stared into her brown misty eyes. They looked sad and tears were forming on the lining of her eyes. He didn't want her to misunderstand, so he let them dripped and didn't attempt to wipe them. "Kyo." She said his name again. "I can't let you go!" She immediately wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. The instant contact forced him arms slipped into a cross and wrapped around her arms.

The moment that their lips touched, Kyo instantly had his eyes closed for the first second. When he opened his eyes on the next second, he eyes were wide opened and his heart was pounding… pounding so hard that he thought that it would stop breathing that very second.

"Kyo?" A bittersweet voice broke the kiss.

"Tohru?" Kagura answered turning herself around to see the stock Tohru staring at Kyo. He stared back at her, but couldn't say a word.

She shook her head frantically in disbelieves and tears were running from her blues eyes.

"Tohru!" Kyo finally managed.

"NOOO!" She ran out of the room before he could explain what was happening. She ran quickly as her tears flew into the air and vaporized. Before she reached the stairs she collided into another body and bounced back onto the floor.

"Tohru, are you alright?" Yuki asked.

She looked up and saw his purple eyes looking at her with concern. She again shook her head hastily. 'No, Yuki has nothing to do with this.' She thought as she pulled herself up and answered his question. "No, I'm fine." At that, she ran downstairs.

"Let me go! I need to go after her!" Kyo still struggled with Kagura.

Seeing the door of Kyo's room was opened, Yuki came in and asked, "What's wrong with Tohru?"

"Yuki! Take care Kagura." Yuki's present got Kagura off guard and Kyo escaped.

"TOHRU!" He ran out calling after her.

Yuki in the other hand was surprised to find Kagura in her natural state. He cleared his throat and asked, "What's going on here?"

She looked away and sighed, "Nothing."

Obviously, something was wrong so he questioned her answer. "Nothing?"

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**Back Stage Discussion: **

Kyo: You can't end it right here!

Smile: Sorry… I need to get some sleep now.

Kyo: This is wrong! Wrong, wrong, wrong and major wrong!

Shigure: Kyo, give her a break. If you get her angry, then she will not update.

Smile: That's right! Oh yeah and I want to express my thanks to everyone who's been reading so far.

Kyo: Oh boy… long speech coming…

Smile: First, thank you everyone who reviewed and helped me with the abbreviation. You guys are great! Second, I just wanted to let you know that all my writings are based on the anime. I don't read manga, not that I know like reading them, but I don't have a budget for them. Third, I love watching anime! Anime rocks! I love them since high school and still am! Fourth, I just recently found this web site in February and since then I started to read. To tell you the truth, I dislike reading and of course writing comes along the same line, but since I found this web site, I couldn't stop reading. I guess it had lighted up a torch inside of me and urge me to write. I don't have a large set of vocabulary, so my writing is very simple. If this torch keeps burning, then I will develop a better set of terminology. Meanwhile, I like to share my fun with everyone who finds it entertaining. Feel free to give me advice, proof read, check my grammars and spelling. I will not be offended by it. Fifth, regarding this story as I said before the idea just popped out of nowhere. I started thinking how I like to mess around with the characters to stir up a not. Finally, I am guilty as charge. Yes, almost all the characters (Yuki, Kyo and Tohru) especially Kagura are out of character. Sorry, if this disappointed you. I do feel like a bad girl, but I had fun doing it, so whatever. I think the only character that I portrayed best was Shigure because I love him so much!

Shigure: Wow! I didn't know that. I am so flattered.

Smile: Yes, you always made me laugh and I love you for it. BTW, I chose "smile" for my pen name to remind me that I need to smile and laugh more often.

Ayame: Smile! He's mine, so don't you dare steal him from me!

Smile: Don't worry, I won't you two are so cute together.

Shigure: Enough with all the sentiment. I think that as long as you have fun doing what you do, there will always be people out there admiring you for being you.

Smile. Yah, I agree.

Kyo: Finally! The stupid speech is done! What's wrong with screwing the characters? It's your story so you can do whatever. Just update soon, I need to find Tohru!

Smile: I'll do my best.

Everyone: Catch you later on the next chapter.


	11. Unfortunate

**Chapter 11 – Unfortunate**

Rumbling noises echoed down the staircase as Tohru ran uncontrollably. She headed straight for the front doors. She ran through them and found herself settled in her so-called to be groom's arms.

"Tohru, what's wrong?" He asked.

She looked up tears still running from her eyes as she said breathlessly, "Kyo… Kyo…"

"Has something happened to Kyo?" Shigure asked holding on to her shivering shoulders.

"Kyo and Kagura… they… they…" She continued to whimper.

"They what?"

"Shigure…" Tohru was too confused at this moment. She didn't understand what was going on. Her feelings for Kyo had somehow become unstable. Her chest hurt as she leaned against the comforting body before her and before she knew it, she was on her tipped toes and lips pressing together.

Shigure pulled away bewilderedly and asked her, "What's wrong?"

"Help me forget." She begged as she closed her eyes to wait for Shigure to embrace her; she could taste the bitterness slipped into her mouth through her lips.

He took her head and pressed her face onto his torso while his arm wrapped around her waist. "Tell me what happened."

Before she was able to answer, Kyo called her name from inside the house. "TOHRRUUU!" At the sound of his voice, she broke away from Shigure completely and her eyes were in shock. She ran.

"Tohru!" Shigure tried to pull her back but failed as she quickly disappeared.

A few minutes later, Kyo came out and asked, "Have you seen Tohru?" His older cousin who looked like a statue with his right arm up in the air turned around and greeted him with a frown.

Shigure studied Kyo's worried gesture and without a word, he raised his arms again and pointed his right index finger to the town's direction. The cat immediately set his course to town and left Shigure behind wondering. "Something is wrong. I could sense something bad is going to happen." He said as his eyes narrowed on the cat's quick reflex chasing after Tohru.

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Meanwhile Kyo was looking for Tohru. Yuki had a long talk with Kagura. Obviously, something happened between her and Kyo. Yuki's last question seeped disbelieve in his voice.

Kagura repeated herself. "I said nothing, nothing happened." She walked to Kyo's closet where she had her cloths hidden and put them on.

Yuki knew that she was lying and didn't allow his eyes to wander off too far from her. Once she finished dressing he had her cornered and looked her in the eyes intensely.

"Don't lie. I understand how you feel, but you cannot force yourself on the stupid cat." He said with a straight face.

"What do you know?" She raised her voice.

He looked away to the tail end of his purple eyes and thought for a second before he confessed, "I did the same thing with Tohru." He began to explain.

"What?" She was surprise. She would never think that Yuki would ever do anything like that. "And… how did she react to it?"

"She was scared. I scared her. I scared myself. I didn't know what I was doing? I've gotten so frustrated with Tohru's yearning for Kyo and it drove me crazy. At first, I thought that it was love which drove me to her, but I was wrong. It wasn't love."

"I don't understand. What are you saying? Don't you love her? Don't you want her?" She asked.

"Yes, I have feelings for her, but these feelings were not what I thought they were. I have missed interpreted them."

"What do you mean?"

"Tohru is very kind and gentle. She has a strong will to live and thrived on other's happiness as her own. She wants everyone around her to be happy and sometimes forget about her own happiness. She has a very strong heart, but physically she is very fragile. With her present I felt warmth and comfort. I wanted to return her kindness, I wanted to protect her from harm and I wanted to shed her from any unnecessary tears, but last night I fail. I've mistaken my feelings for her. I approached her with force, wanting her to be mind. I took advantage of her indecisiveness and tried to convince both her and myself that I desired her."

"What wrong with that? If you loved someone, don't you want that person to be yours and only yours?"

"Yes, but the person that you loved should willingly give him or her to you. If you're feelings are not returned like that way you wanted them to be then you should try to reconcile and move on. I just realized this today."

"I don't see anything wrong in trying to persuade the person you loved to return your feelings. Though…" Kagura dropped down on her buns and sighed. "I tried and it didn't feel very good… maybe I overdid it a little."

"You think?" Yuki smiled and sat next to her. "Last night, during my development with Tohru, at first she gave in, but I could tell that she was fighting herself trying to decide whether it was okay for her to melt under my movement. After a few kisses, she tensed up and started to resist and finally she said the stupid cat's name. The moment that I heard his name my blood broiled up. My guts told me that Kyo was the one that she desire and not me. My ego took over and I wanted to devour her. I wanted to take possession of something that didn't belong to me, something that I was not able to grasp in my hands and something that Kyo had advantage over me."

"And, did you go through with it?"

"Fortunately, no her cried knocked some senses out of me and stopped me before I went any further." He chuckled. "Even then, I didn't realize my true feelings. I thought that I loved her so much that it drove me insane and made me performed an unforgivable act."

"But how did you realize that love wasn't the emotion that drove you to her? How can you know for sure?"

"I didn't know until I saw him today."

"Him?"

"Yes, the cat. I felt at ease when I saw him or should I say happy to see him. Of course, I didn't show it, but I've got so accustomed with him being around that I didn't know that it was he who drove me closer to Tohru. Earlier, when I had some time to myself, I was thinking. For the longest time that I knew him, we've been fighting over the silliest thing and somehow I've always win. Whenever we have a fight or a competition, I always managed to win. Same goes with Tohru, I wanted to win. There was an unknown urge inside of me; it was manipulating my feelings and converted my obsession to win into false feelings. I love her, yes of course I do, but if I really love her love her, then I could have waited for her like I said. The fact that I was losing to the stupid cat drove me mad and took control over me."

"I still don't understand."

"I know now that I love Tohru like a member of the family. I wanted to protect her and looked over for that very reason because she became a part of me that I cannot let go. Now that I understand how I really feel about her, I want her to be happy. If she is happy with Kyo or with anyone else, then I'll be thankful. Think about it, wouldn't you be happier if you remain your outrageous, loud and annoying self while observing Kyo's happiness?"

She searched her thought for a moment, "I know you and Kyo for a long time, and since then I've always told myself that I love him. I'm not stupid you know? I know very well how Kyo feels about Tohru, I even tried to accept it once a while back when Kyo transformed into his second form. I thought the Tohru will be only one who would be able to help him find happiness. I still believe that is true, but part of me want to think that and the other part of me want to be with Kyo. When I heard the news from Aya that Tohru is getting married, but the groom was not Kyo, I felt disturbed. Somehow the part of me that wants Kyo became dominion with hatred and jealousy. I had given up on Kyo for his sake to allow her to find him and for they to find happiness. Instead of returning his feelings, she is going to married Shigure?" She sneered. "I also heard that Shigure made a pack that she could decide between the three of you. What kind of bull is that? Why can't she see that Kyo needs her? She kept him hanging and couldn't decide. Why is that? Is she so afraid that she will hurt his feelings or yours if she picks one and not the other? The whole idea made my stomach gagged and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted Kyo to be mine."

"I can understand how you feel, but you could see that you action today didn't make him very happy, nor did Tohru or yourself."

She sighed heavily, "I know, but… she hasn't made her decision yet, so I still have a chance, right?"

"She did."

"When?" Kagura sounded confuse.

"Last night and her reaction today proved it. She chose the stupid cat."

Kagura pondered her thoughts, "So she did? I guessed I was so full of myself that I didn't care or noticed." She dropped her head down onto her knees on wrapped her arms around them. "I was so cruel to her… I tried to blackmail her… In other words, I was cruel to him, too… What should I do now?" She asked timidly.

Yuki pulled her into a hug. "Tohru is very forgiving and she'll probably forget everything that happened almost instantly and Kyo is too stupid to hold a grudge. Just be you again and everything will be fine."

"Thank you." Kagura said leaning the side of her face on her knee. "I don't know how far I would have gone to if you haven't talked to me like this." She looked up and met his eyes.

He warmly smiled back, "It's nothing." She blushed.

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Kyo's legs were faster than Tohru. He was able to catch up to her in the city. "Tohru!" He called to her. She turned around and saw him on the other side of the four way streets. She wanted to run to him, but at the same time couldn't let go of the image of him and Kagura together, so she moved away quickly. She found herself caught between the busy crowds of a typical Saturday's afternoon. She tried to lower her head so that he couldn't spot her. "TOHRU!" He continued to call for her as he crossed the street. Rotating his head slowly as he focused, he recognized her long chestnut brown her anywhere. He squeezed and slid through the pool of people and snatched the fabric of her white dress. "Tohru!" He quickly embraced her into his arms.

"Let me go! I can't…" She raised her voice.

People of all ages were looking at the two young lovers amusingly. They looked like they were having a lover quarrel, so no one paid much attention and continued to walk passed them one after another. Kyo could care less about the people around him. He refused to let her go, "NO!" and squeezed her harder as he crashed his lips against hers.

"Mmm…" She pushed and pushed shaking her head as she tried to pull away from his kiss.

"Tohru! Nothing happened." He said.

"But… " She refused to believe. "You were… you were kissing her."

"No, I didn't! She kissed me." He argued.

"But you were and she was..."

"Tohru, I would never." He held her again hugging her tightly. "I love you." He breathed. "If anything was to happen, it will be with you."

His words sounded like an angel spoken into her ears. She wanted to melt into his arm and to be able to hear him talking assuring her again and again, but the image of the bare Kagura still disturbed her. "Kagura said that you and her, she said that you and her…"

"What? What did she said?"

"She said…"

"Nothing happened! I swear nothing!"

"And she said that she'll die for you! She'll kill herself if she doesn't get you. How can I live with that sin, if she really did?"

"That bitch! She's gone too far. Hell with her! I don't care! I want you." He locked his eyes with hers and repeated, "I want you. You're the only one."

"Kyo…" She returned him a gentle kiss which lead him off guard and let her go for a second, "I… I can't." She ran off into the streets.

"TOHRU!" He ran after her. She could his voice and the sound of tire screeching from behind. He pushed her away off the street and he himself landed his limb against her.

The vehicle stopped and the driver came out shouting, "You guys want to die or something? Stupid kids!"

"Shut up!" Kyo screamed angrily. "Can't you see that we're hurt? So shut to fuck up!"

"DAMNED KIDS!" The driver went back into his car and drove away.

"Tohru, speak to me!" Kyo held her in his arms. He saw the car coming so fast, that he didn't have time to think.

"Kyo…" She blinked her eyes, but couldn't open them all the way. Her head started to spin and she could only see darkness as she slowly closed them completely and in a very low voice she said, "I love you."

"NO, Tohru!" He held her tighter as he felt something wet dripped onto his arm. "Blood? What should I do? What should I do?" He quickly remembered, "Hatori. Hospital." He picked up her body and headed off to the nearest facility.

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**Back Stage Discussion: **

Kyo: What happened to Tohru?

Smile: Catch the next chapter for an update.

Shigure: Yah… (yawning) Let go to sleep now.

Ayame: Wait for me, Shigure!

Everyone: Later.


	12. Unintentional Lost

**Chapter 12 – Unintentional Lost**

The traffic's today was busier than normal or was it that everyone was in a rush that it seemed that way. Hatori received a phone called from the local hospital and hopped into his car immediately to see his younger cousin who sounded like he was at a lost and didn't know what to do. Shigure, Yuki and Kagura were also on their way to the hospital. Once arrived, Hatori was the only member who was admitted into the examination room. Everyone else wore a depressing face and waited outside. Everyone and everything appeared to be standing still and time went dreadfully slow as each person looked at each other's faces and then all eyes stared at the emergency room where Tohru was being examined.

Kyo curled up into a ball by the door. His fists were turning white from his tight grip and his fingertips buried deep inside his palms. His arms were shaking frenziedly as if he wanted to aim his anger at something or someone. He felt responsible for Tohru being in the emergency room. He didn't understand what was happening. All he did was pushed her away from the speedy vehicle to save her. Did he not make the right decision? When he brought her to the hospital she was admitted in right away due to the bleeding from her head. He then called Hatori and Shigure to let them know what happened. The next thing he knew he was sitting here by the door of the emergency room waiting, lost in his thoughts and feeling guilty.

Everyone was disturbed to hear the news and they could see that Kyo was taking it very hard. Kagura couldn't help, but felt partially responsible for what happened because it was she whom made Tohru ran away. She had never in her life seen Kyo so lost and distracted. She approached him in trying to comfort him. "Kyo…" She started with a very low voice.

The sound of her voice set the bothered Kyo on fire. "Bitch! It's all your fault!" He instantly stood up and without thinking swung his arms at her landing a vicious five fingers mark on her left cheek.

"Kyo!" Shigure exclaimed from across the hall. He couldn't believe what he just saw.

She fell onto her knees holding her face and bitterly she apologized, "I'm… sooorry."

"You stupid cat!" Yuki returned him a fist into his guts sending him back against the wall of the dead hallway.

"Why?" Kyo questioned, but didn't fight back. "If she hadn't played such dirty trick, then this would never happen. I would be with Tohru right now. Why are you defending her?"

Yuki sighed in agreement. "Yes, she was stupid to do what she did, but she did it for you. No one would expect anything like this to happen. Look at her, she knows what she did was wrong and she is sorry."

"Sorry?" Kyo smirked hot air escaped his nostrils.

"There is nothing we can do now. What happened already happened. We can only wish for the best and hope that Tohru will be okay."

"Yuki is right. You shouldn't overreact like this. It's nobody's fault, this is just an unfortunate accident. Hatori is with her right now. He'll make sure that she'll make it through this safely." Shigure said as he walked toward the cat and gently patted his shoulders to assure him that everything will be alright.

Kyo swung away and stared at the doubled doors that separated him from his love and sighed. "Tohru… please be okay." He whispered.

Kagura managed to stand up with Yuki's help. She could still feel the burn from her face as apologized again, "Kyo… I am truly sorry. I didn't mean for it to end this way. I never intended to get Tohru hurt. I just wanted to…"

"Shut up!" Kyo didn't want to hear her saying anything. At this moment, he despised her and the troubled cat again said ruthlessly ignoring what Shigure said earlier, "If anything happen to Tohru, I'll never forgive you!"

She exhaled instantly at his word placing her hand on her chest. She could feel her heart ached and her lung squeezed tightly with every breath.

Yuki held her in his arms to comfort her. "Just give him some time. He'll forgive you."

She clung to his comfort and thought to herself, 'I deserve this.'

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Four hours later, Hatori came out of the emergency room. He walked up to Kyo and smiled. "She'll be alright." He said. Everyone exhaled their relieved.

"What happened?" Shigure asked his friend.

"It appeared that she fell and fractured her head which cause minor bleeding. We've stopped the bleeding and bandaged that part of her head. The bandages should be removed within a day or two, but she will need to stay at the hospital for a week for follow-up exams."

"How did this happen?" Yuki asked.

"I don't know." Hatori looked at Kyo for an answer.

He sighed heavily, "I tried to push her away from a running car. I might have pushed her too hard. I think she hit her head on the curb or something." Again his gripped his fists together with guilt.

"Did you noticed or remembered anything different about that curb or street you were on?"

Kyo took a second to recollect his memories. He remembered his hands were in pain when he held her body up. He released his fists and held his palms up to find little dried dots of blood, which looked like they were made from needles contact. He opened up his eyes and said, "There were lots of gravels. That part of the street was under construction."

"Yes, then that explained it. Her wound was not deep, but there were a few pieces for sharp gravels that managed to crack through the outer layer of her skull, which cause the bleeding. Fortunately, it didn't hit any vital member and we found no internal bleeding."

"Thank goodness." Kyo exhaled releasing his fists.

"She is still unconscious now from the anesthetic, but should be awake in a few hours. No visitor will be allowed to see her until her bandages are taken off. This facility is run by the Sohma's family, I'll ask to be her doctor and in the mean time, take care of her. You guys should all go home. I'll let you know when she wakes up and when you can come and visit her."

"Why? If she's okay, then why can't I see her now?" Kyo demanded.

Hatori sighed as he met Shigure's eyes staring at him. "This is just the way it is…"

Kyo took in a deep breath as he looked at the lifeless doors that were standing between him and Tohru. "Fine." He breathed. "You better give me a call when she's better." And he left the quiet hallway of the hospital and headed home.

"Yes, keep us update on her condition as soon as possible." Yuki added. He and Kagura also left the scene leaving only Hatori and Shigure behind.

"Is there something else that you didn't tell us?" Shigure asked knowing Hatori too well that he was keeping something away from them.

"Physically, Tohru should be alright and I doubt that she will need to stay here more than a week, but…"

"But what?"

"The area that was fractured was on the side of her head near her medial temporal lobe."

"Temporal lobe?" Shigure winked. "What's that?"

"This section is a part of the brain's cerebrum located near the temple of each person head. When I erase a person's memory, this is the area where I would concentrate my power. Its particular function is to collect and store memories."

Shigure reached his arms out and grabbed the doctor's gown, "You don't mean that she will…"

"I hope not."

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A Sunday without Tohru's smile was out of the ordinary. What was more out of the ordinary was that Kyo and Yuki were not fighting? Each boy had accepted their places. The invisible wall of tension and hatred that they had between them had somehow disengaged. The love and emotion that they had for Tohru have settled by her decision. Although, she didn't have a chance to tell everyone her choice; everyone had figured it out for themselves from what had happened the day before. Right now, both boys have but one objective and that was for Tohru to get better and get back home safely.

Shigure was also acting surprisingly weird today. He woke up early for a change and even made breakfast. "I've just got a call from Hatori." He said while his cousins seated themselves down at the dining table.

"Really? What did he say?" Kyo asked hurriedly.

"Tohru hasn't waked up yet."

Kyo stared at his respond.

"Why? Didn't he say that she'll wake up in a couple of hours after the anesthetic wears out?" Yuki asked.

"He said that he had checked everything, and she seemed fine. He said that maybe she was just too exhausted from being sick before and maybe her body just needed some more rest, so that's why she hasn't woke up yet. He told me not to worry. " How can they not be worry? All three cousins were very worried now, especially Shigure who knew a little more about the situation. He tried to ease the anxiety a little and pretended that nothing was wrong. "Don't worry. I know Hatori well, he's a great physician. He could handle anything even the toughest task like erasing people's memories."

This made Kyo and Yuki worried even more.

Shigure didn't mean to say that last part about erasing memories, but somehow it just slipped. He chuckled. "Just believe in him… and think about it, Tohru is just too sweet and kind. She will be blessed, I'm sure…" He wasn't sure.

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The next day at school, Uo sneaked behind Kyo who was staring into space on the roof top of the school building. "Orange-top! Where have you been? I thought that you'll never come back to school." Uo gave him a hard welcome smack on his back.

"What's that for you witch?"

"You better not call me names or I'll make the rest of your high school days so miserable that you wished you never knew me."

He sighed and looked away into the blue sky. "So, did anything happen while I was gone?"

"Nothing special." She replied sitting down next to him. "Oh, we did a survey about post graduation."

"Survey?" He asked still looking into space toward the hospital direction where Tohru was staying at.

"Yeah, each senior student was to think about what he or she would like to do after graduation. Tohru wants to do something with animals, Yuki is looking into martial art, Hana wants to become Chemist and I'm interest in motor machinery. What about you? What are you interest?"

"Huh?"

"Didn't you hear a thing that I said?"

"What?"

"I asked you what do you want to do after graduation."

"Beats me… I don't have time to think about this nonsense right now. What happen will happen… I'll just deal with it when it comes."

"Is something wrong? You don't seem to be yourself today."

"Hi!" Hana greeted them from the entrance. "I thought that I might find you guys here." Yuki also came at the same time and both walked up to the two that were already there.

"I sense something odd is going on here. I've been waiting to ask you where is Tohru? She never misses school unless she's very ill. Am I right?" Hana asked.

"Leave me alone!"

"You jerk! You're hiding something aren't you? Spit it out or else?" Uo strangled his neck with both of her hands.

"Just leave him alone." Yuki said leaning his back against the fence of the roof top.

"Now this is definitely the first time. The prince is defending him. Something is very fishy…" Hana said as she examined Yuki's plain expression.

"Tohru had an accident…" He started to explain.

"What?" Both girls asked at the same time.

"She is resting at the local hospital now and no visitor is allowed yet. So far, all we know is that she's okay and will be release in a couple of days."

"No… what happened?" Hana asked.

Yuki filled them in with all the details that he knew and said that he will update them as soon as he get more information about Tohru's condition.

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While at the hospital, Tohru finally woke up with a terrible headache as she found herself on the hospital bed and Hatori by her side. "Hatori?" She asked while shaking her head on the pillow and tried to sit up.

"Tohru, you're still weak, so you shouldn't move too much." He loan her a hand to aid her up. He then walked to the window and pulled the curtains to allow the sun to come in.

"What am I doing here? And why this terrible headache?" She asked.

He turned around to meet her blue eyes as he examined her. It looked like she didn't remember how she got to the hospital, but that sounded about right because she had fainted when Kyo brought her in.

"Hatori?" She asked again.

He continued to think. She remembered his name so that was a relieved. He smiled gently and said, "You're…"

"Pardon me." One of the nurses came in. "Miss. Honda is schedule for a cat scan in ten minutes. May I take her to the x-ray room?" She asked Hatori and he nodded.

"Tohru…" He continued. "We need to remove your bandages and run some test on her head injury."

"Head injury?" She quickly moved her right hand up to the right side of her head. She felt like something was thrilling inside of her head. 'So this is where my headache came from.' She thought to herself.

The nurse rolled in a wheelchair for Tohru to sit. Hatori helped lifting Tohru onto the chair and they escorted her to the x-ray room.

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An hour later, Hatori got the test result for the lab and everything checked out fine. It looked like Tohru had no damages whatsoever, but why did she took longer to wake up? He didn't know, maybe it was like he said earlier that she needed extra rest. He called Shigure to let him know the good news and also told him the Tohru will be able to see visitor tomorrow. Shigure was overjoyed and spread the news to everyone that he knew.

Hatori came into his brown hair patient's room and found her sleeping. He didn't want to wait her up, so he turned around and headed for the door. Before he existed, he was able to hear her cried. "Kyo… I love you."

She woke up and found him standing at the door and called for him, "Hatori."

He walked back to her and smiled, "So, how is your headache?"

"It's subsided a little." She replied. "You still haven't responded my question from earlier. Why am I here?"

He stared at her straight face as if she knew nothing. He couldn't help but had to test her out.

"You don't remember?"

"No."

'This is not good.' He thought as he continued with her, "Kyo brought you here about two days ago."

"Kyo?" Her head was starting to hurt again. She placed her hands on both side of her head as she squeezed her eyes together and asked herself, 'Why does it hurt so much when I say his name?'

"Tohru…" Hatori took control of her arms and set them down. "Look at me… answer my questions." He demanded.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Yes, Hatori Sohma. Doctor."

"What about Shigure?"

"Yes, Shigure Sohma. Novelist."

"Anyone else you can remember?"

"Ayame, Yuki, Kagura, Uo, Hana, Momiji, Haru, Kisa… and… and… Kyo…" Her head hurt again as she winked her eyes staring into the doctor's dark ones.

"Can you remember what happened two days ago?"

"No." She shook her head.

"What is the last event that you can remember?"

She dug deeper tried to remember any special events that happened or recent thought that she could recall. She finally said slowly, "Sohma's curse… second stage begins…"

"Second stage?" He questioned. He didn't understand what she was saying. "What second stage? Can you be more specific?"

"I don't remember… Shigure?" She questioned herself.

He opened his eyes as thought he knew something. "Tohru… I'm sorry…"

"For what?"

"I don't know yet… I'll have to figure it out." He let her go and tucked her back in bed. "Sleep and rest her head, you'll feel better after a good sleep."

"You still haven't answered me yet… Why am I here?" She asked again.

"I'll tell you once I figured it out." He replied. "Now be a good girl and sleep."

"Okay."

He left her and went to see Shigure.

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**Back Stage Discussion:**

Smile: This is all for now.

Kyo: That's it?

Smile: Oh, and I wanted to mention that in chapter 11, I typed "Sunday" instead of "Saturday", so I changed it. For all the readers that already read chapter 11, I apologize for the confusion. (Correction from chapter 11: She found herself caught between the busy crowds of a typical Saturday's afternoon.)

Shigure: Hey, did you have to cut me short? I was coming up next!

Smile: I know. Just wait for the next update. Okay, love?

Ayame: Smile! You said that you won't interfere?

Smile: I never say that I would… did I?

Ayame: What does that mean?

Shigure: Oh, Aya… give her a break. You're jealousy is so predictable and she can easily fiddle you around her fingers.

Smile: Actually, I wished that I was you Aya.

Ayame: Really?

Smile: Uh-huh.


	13. Forgotten Memories

**Chapter 13 – Forgotten Memories **

Night fell quickly as Hatori went to visit his cousin to discuss with him about the second stage of the Sohmas' curse. He arrived at the front door where he met Shigure, walking toward him from the opposite direction. Shigure raised his hand up to greet this silent cousin. He quickly reached his cousin and found a disturbing look in his eyes. Hatori shook his head as he motioned that they should go inside and talk. They walked in through the front gate passing the dark landscaping of the yard. They found Kyo sitting on the porch looking into the night sky. It had been two days since Tohru was admitted into the hospital and it had also been two days that Kyo was in that trend. They walked passed him without him even knowing, so as they found Yuki sitting in the living room by himself staring at the wall with his chin in his right palm. They decided to pass their little rat friend too and walked straight into Shigure's room.

Yuki caught them walking pass in the living room. 'Why didn't they come inside?' He asked himself as he felt a haunch and decided to find out what they were up to. He came out of the room and found Kyo in front. He patted the cat's shoulder lightly as he said, "Kyo…" in a low voice. His first attempt fail, so he tried again, but this time pushing the other boy forward- which made him fell to the ground.

"You damn rat!" Kyo exclaimed as he stood up.

Yuki quickly placed a finger in front of his lips to quiet the cat. "Shhhh…"

Kyo's brows wrinkled up as he looked at his purple eyed cousin. "What?"

"Hatori is here." Yuki replied.

"Where?"

"He and Shigure went to the bedroom I think."

"Why?"

"That's what I wanted to know. Want to find out?"

"Yah." Kyo agreed.

The two boys walked quietly to find the sliding doors of Shigure's bedroom. There they quietly sat by the door one at each side looking at each other. They dropped down onto their knees and lean their head lightly against the papered doors.

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In the room, Hatori seated himself so that he was facing his cousin on a cushion pillow seat on the hardwood floor. Shigure knew that Hatori had something important to say and didn't want to alarm Yuki and Kyo. It must have something to do with Tohru's memories.

"So, how is Tohru?" Shigure finally asked looking at his serious face cousin.

"Like I said earlier on the phone, she's doing fine." Hatori responded.

"Come on now, I'm not as dumb as I look, am I?"

"Well then, I'll cut to the chase. Tohru lost some memories; she couldn't remember the accident. Yet, she remembered all of us, so that could only mean that part of her memories were lost. I tried to ask her a few questions and the last thing that she could remember was something about the second stage of the Sohma's curse."

This caught Shigure's attention and he stared and smiled back at this cousin playfully.

"I know as well as you do that there is no such thing as the second stage of the curse, so I'm not going to interrogate you about your notion, but I need to know when was it that that you talked to her about it?"

"Oh… I'm busted." He cooed. "You never let me have any fun."

Hatori stared at his bouncy friend.

Shigure sighed and straightened himself up. He cleared his throat as he pretended to think. "Oh… It was something over a week ago when Tohru asked about Kyo and Yuki acting all weird. She looked so cute when she was concerned, so I stirred things up a little by telling her that both Kyo and Yuki were sick from some kind of disease that was cause by the curse. I called my creation the second stage and I used that as an excuse to ask her to marry me. I assured her that I will have everyone cured if she does…"

"WHAT?" Kyo kicked down the door on his side and stomped in. He immediately aimed his anger at the dog. Shigure pushed himself away using his hands while he was still sitting on his cushion. "So, that's why she agreed to married you? You bastard! How can you trick her like that?" Kyo kept going forward.

Shigure continued to pull away. "But in my opinion, there was indeed a second stage."

"What nonsense are you talking about?" He screamed.

"We Sohmas, who carried the curse cannot have a real relationship with anyone of the opposite sex. Now that the curse is over, the second stage begins. This is the time, where all the emotion that we compressed inside overflow with anxiety. We want to get them expose and express our feelings toward the one we love and hoping in return that he or she will feel the same. I know that you and Yuki had feelings for Tohru, but couldn't let her know due to the curse. Now that you can hold her and return her warmth, your desire built up, but still neither of you had the nerve to tell her. My stepping in forced you to confess and causes her to choose. Between the three of us, I know that I'm more like a guardian to her, so that leave you and Yuki. In the past week, it appeared that she had made her decision. Didn't she?" He sneered at the cat that was still furious at him.

"What? How did you know?" The cat lowered his voice.

"It's pretty obvious…" Shigure replied. "And I was hoping that she couldn't decide and marry me instead. I do love a cute l-i-t-t-l-e housewife." The dog teased.

"Why you…!"

"Cut this…" Hatori interrupt the cat and dog fight. "There is serious matter at state here."

"Yes, there is…" Yuki decided to come in and joined the conversation. "From what I understand so far, it seemed that Tohru had lost her memories of the past week. Am I right?" He asked his doctor cousin.

"Since the two of you have been eavesdropping, I guessed you figured it out." Hatori sighed. "Yes, it appeared that she had forgotten everything that happened in the past week or week a half since Shigure tricked her about the curse."

"No!" The cat dropped his voice. "Then does this mean that she forgot about what happened between her and I?"

"I'm afraid so." Hatori replied.

"Just when her and I…" Kyo said as he held his tears. "How can this be happening? I thought that you said that everything was okay and she'll be fine."

"Yes, everything according to the medical records and tests says she's fine and there is no evidence that I could find to show why she lost her memories. The only explanation that I could logically conclude in her case is that she somehow forgot on purpose." Hatori explained.

"On purpose? Why?" The cat breathed with a confusing face.

"Something must had happened that she didn't want to remember, so when she injured her head, somehow her brain sent signal waves and mentally she blocked out the pieces of memories without she even knowing that she did. This is not the first time a case like this happened. In the past, there had been a few cases like this and most of them were temporary."

"How long will it take for her to remember?" Yuki asked for Kyo, who had one hand covering his face with his fingers spread like spider legs.

"It hard to say… Some takes few days, others months and then even years."

"So… there is a possibility that she will never remember." Kyo voice rose with a flat tone asked hoping that Hatori will not answer his comment.

"Yes." Hatori response sent the cat down on his knees with disbelief. Everything happened so fast, but now everything went away at a faster speed than it came. The cat couldn't help, but hope that Tohru will remember soon. At this moment in time he needs her to remember.

"Can't you do anything about it? With your gifted power, can you retrieve her lost memories?" Yuki asked.

"No, I'm afraid my power can only erase them." Hatori paused to examine the three men in sorrow. No one would expect anything like this to happen to their sweet Tohru. This was an unintentional lost to everyone and especially for the two kids who were in love. Hatori could remember Tohru's voice when she said she loved the cat. Her voice sounded like it was far away trying to reach her love. He could sworn that he saw a tear drop escaped from each of her eyes when he turned around and saw her opening them. With nothing more to say or comfort to give, he continued, "Time is an essence here. All we could do now is to be supportive and allow time to play its part. Tohru will remember when the right time comes. Are you planning to visit her tomorrow?"

The dog and rat nodded, while the cat was still sinking in his thoughts.

"I suggest that you don't mention to her about her lost memories just yet. It may make her feel odd. I will tell her that she had a car accident and just that."

"What about the others, will you inform them as well?"

"I will."

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Kyo couldn't sleep last night. He couldn't allow himself to believe that everything that happened in the 10 days were gone, disappeared like it never had happened. Morning came and still he didn't sleep a wink. He decided to get up, showered and went to visit Tohru. He needed to be alone with her to find out the truth for himself. He quietly walked downstairs where he surprisingly found the dog and rat sleeping in the living room. He tried to sneak out without them noticing.

"Where do you think you're going?" Shigure asked with his eyes closed.

"I'm… um…" Kyo responded. "It's none of your business."

"I'm not going to stop you, but don't do anything foolish." Shigure knew exactly what Kyo was up to, but the easy tempered Kyo sometimes could overreact.

"I…" Of course, he wasn't going to do anything foolish. Why would the dog even care? Right now, all he needed was to see her face. "Tell Yuki that I'll meet him and the others at school later."

Shigure opened his eyes. "I see that you and Yuki have come to terms with each other. That's good to know."

"Agh… whatever."

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Kyo arrived at the hospital early; it must be only seven o'clock in the morning. The hospital didn't allow visitor until eight, so he waited in the lobby until then. He saw Hatori coming in with his suitcase. The older cousin walked by and patted him on the shoulder and left without a word. Kyo watched the mounted clock on the wall and every time the second hand of time moved, he wanted it to move again. His heart was racing, time passed slowly as every second ticked.

Finally, the time came and the nurse escorted him to the room where he could find Tohru. He opened it slowly hoping not the wake her up. He walked in with the tip of his shoes and found his Tohru sleeping soundlessly. He captured her sleeping imaged in his gleaming pupils admiring her form, then bent over and gently braced her lips. At the touch of her lips, he realized that he may never have another chance to kiss her again. He gripped onto the blanket that was keeping his love warm and struggled to keep his eyes from tearing.

Tohru opened her eyes and found Kyo only inches away from her. He looked like he was in pain. She felt her chest beating, playing a familiar rhythm that she couldn't remember. "Kyo?" She spoke his name. He immediately straightened up and looked into her blues eyes.

She seated herself up. "Is something wrong?" She asked.

"Oh, Tohru!" Without delay, he reached his arms out for her. He held onto her tightly embracing her warmth against his. Tohru could feel her chest pounding faster. She knew this feeling. She liked this feeling. Her heart was telling her that this had happened before, but her mind was telling her otherwise. Somehow, for no reason at all, she wanted to stay like this in his arm, but before long this moment was interrupted by his broken voice. "Tohru… do you remember?"

"Remember what?" She spoke into his chest and her head started to hurt again.

He let her go and turned his head away. 'It's true then… she doesn't remember.' He thought looking down at the hospital floor. After about a second, he rolled his narrowed eyes back up and at the corner of his tail end he saw her closing eyes together tightly. She was trying to ease her headache. He turned his head back completely reaching his hand out to caress the lining of her heart shaped face.

She opened her eyes bewilderedly to meet his. Her head was still throbbing as she tried to think. "Did I forget something?" She asked him. Her words sent him a few steps backward.

"Tohru." He said her name.

"Kyo?" She said again, this time she felt fluid started to form and clouded her eyes. She quickly shut them; she didn't want to worry him about something that she didn't understand.

Unusual, yet he did manage to control his feelings too, at this moment. He also didn't want to worry her. Right now, her health and recovery were more important that his own needs. He breathed lightly and said, "No. It was nothing. I was just so worried that's all. You had a car accident and it was all my fault."

"So is that why I'm here?" She asked.

"Yes, that is why you're here." Hatori came in that second that Kyo spoke about the accident. "And since, Kyo had already told you, I guessed that I don't need to explain anymore." He gave her a smile.

"But why don't I remember any of it? My head hurts…" She shook it hastily.

"You shouldn't do that." Hatori stopped her and rested her against the headboard. "It will be better soon, so don't worry. Everything checked out fine. As a matter of fact, you will be released this afternoon."

"Really? But… why do I feel like I forgot something very important to me?"

Kyo stood there holding his breath with the feeling of world on his shoulders. The muscles of his arms were all tightened stiff from his hard grip. He wanted to tell her now and again that he loved her. He stepped forward, but his attempt failed with Hatori's interference.

He stepped in, blocking the path to Tohru and stared at the cat. "I will need to do some final tests and paperwork with Tohru. You should go to school now." The cat gazed back in disappointment, but knew better to not have a fit in front of Tohru right now. He agreed silently and went off to school.

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At school, everyone who knew Tohru was anxious to go and visit her. Kyo came to school, but didn't say a thing about seeing her this morning. He was in no mood to do so. He was quiet and all to himself for the entire school day.

"Orange-top! Come on, it's time. Lets go!" Uo dragged the cat and they were tackled along behind the others. Together everyone at school went to school to visit Tohru. They reached the hospital quickly and were stopped by their doctor friend before they entered Tohru's room. He warned them about Tohru's missing memories and asked that no one say anything about it. Everyone agreed thinking it was best for her.

"Tohru!" Uo sprung the hospital's door open to greet her missed friend with a hug.

"Uo!" Tohru was happy to see her.

"How are you? Is everything okay? You're not going to die are you?" Momiji asked continuously. Clearly he was worried about his sweet friend Tohru.

"You're over reacting, I'm okay, and I'm not going to die." She replied.

"Hope you get better soon." Haru said leaning his back against the wall of the hospital room.

"Thank you." She responded.

"Oh, Tohru. What terrible person can do this to you?" Hana asked.

"It's was nothing. It's probably my own fault that I got into an accident, but I'm fine now, see? So no worries…" She replied quickly.

"I'm glad to see you doing okay." Yuki smiled as he approached her still sitting in bed.

"Me too." She returned his smile.

"Kyo, aren't you going to say something to her?" Uo asked the cat who was leaning against the door's frame. Tohru moved her head around through the crowd to find the disturbed cat. He returned her effort with silent gaze. There wasn't anything he could say to her right now.

She didn't understand why he was acting so distant, but she was happy that he came. She was even happier to find four more visitors.

"Kyo." Kagura greeted him with low tone of voice as she, Shigure, Kisa and Hiro walked into the room of many people.

"Hi, Tohru." Kagura managed a smile.

"Kagura, it's been a while. How are you doing these days?"

"I…" Kagura couldn't answer her question and looked away to find the cat with his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"She's doing fine, aren't you?" Yuki broke the silent responded in Kagura's place and she nodded.

"Big sis, I'm so glad to see you well. I was so worried." Kisa gave her a squeeze.

"I'm glad to see you, too. And you too, Hiro."

"Yah, what' the big deal anyway? She's okay, so can we leave now?"

"Hiro!"

"What?"

"Just a little longer…" Kisa pleaded.

"Okay, I'll stay, but it's just for you." He could never refuse Kisa of anything if it was what she wanted.

Tohru took a second to collect all the faces of her friends and family. "This is so nice of all of you. You didn't have to go through the trouble to come here and visit me." She said to everyone.

"This is to show that everyone cares and loves you very much, so you will need to get well soon." Shigure stated.

"I will!" She said cheerfully. "Hatori said that I can go home this afternoon."

"Yes, actually all the final testing is done and she might as well go home now. I'll go and get everything ready for her." Hatori added.

"That's great! Yeah! Woo-hoo!" Everyone exclaimed simultaneously.

Before Hatori was able to leave the room to get the discharge paperwork ready, another visitor came rushing in unexpectedly. "Tohru! Oh this is so terrible, I've heard the news." A voice loudly expressed itself over the crowd.

"Aya?" Shigure furiously opened up his eyes and stared at Hatori telling him that he hadn't told Ayame about what happened yet. He made his way through the body of people to find Ayame running into the room. "I need to talk to you."

Ayame fixed his eyes on Shigure, but something was bothering him, so ignored Shigure completely and welcomed himself into the room. At an instant reached the girl of everyone's concern. "Tohru, what bloody fiancée would allow such terrible thing to happen to you? I was so worried when I heard that you were sick. Are you going to be okay? Will you get better by the time of the wedding?"

"Fiancée? Wedding?" She dropped her face into her palms.

"Yes and the wedding dress that you ordered is done, so come by this coming Sunday and try it on. I need to make the final alteration after I see you in it." He carried on while everyone was trying to signal him to stop. "I've also finished with Shigure's tux and you should see me in mine as well. After all, I'll be the groom's best man."

Shigure coughed.

Ayame finally caught everyone's gaze. They were fiercely staring at him. "What? Is there something wrong? Why is everyone looking at me like this?"

"So… I did forget something." Tohru said softly to her hands.

"What? You mean that you've forgotten about the wedding?" He asked confusedly as his yellow eyes met the rest from the crowd. He sighed, "O…"

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**Back Stage Discussion:**

Ayame: Sorry! I didn't know that everyone is trying to keep me from telling Tohru the truth.

Smile: No biggy. This is how I wanted it to be.

Shigure: So… what's next?

Smile: You know… Tohru goes home, try on the wedding dress and yadi yadi ya…

Yuki: I see that we have a new staff on board.

Smile: Yes, everyone, please join me and welcome Hai Kami Cookie-Chan.

Everyone: Welcome!

Ayame: So, what will she be doing?

Smile: She will help us with the proofreading. In other words, she will beta the story for us from this chapter on. Aren't you guys exciting? With her help, I will have more time to write and less time struggling over my scribble.

Shigure: That is great! I hope she isn't a pest like the one that I have. My editor is always on my tail, but she can be fun to mess with.

Smile: I can't stop you from having fun, but it's not nice to say that she's a pest. Well, I can use all the help I can get, so Hai Kami Cookie-Chan… Thank you!


	14. Affair

**Chapter 14 – Affair**

Tohru came home five days ago and had returned to her day to day activities. She went to school as usually and learned once again from the school survey that she received back from her homeroom teacher that she wanted to be a veterinarian. This was something else that she had forgotten, but compare to marriage this was an issue of less concern. She was happy to learn it though, because she loves animals and felt that she made a right decision in approaching that career. Regarding her marriage with Shigure; she hadn't had a clue about how it all happened. Were they in love? How and when did it happen? She kept asking herself questions trying to remember, but she just ended up with a terrible headache every time she tried.

Then there were Yuki and Kyo. Yuki seemed to be normal around her. He treated her the same way as he always had. Yet, Kyo had gotten distance with her. From time to time, she would meet his red eyes and they looked disoriented and lonely. She felt strange around him, it seemed that he wanted to tell her something but then held back. She also noticed that Yuki and Kyo weren't fighting anymore. They still called each other names, but no physical contact. This was also something that she didn't remember either.

Today was Sunday. Tohru had finished breakfast and everyone eaten. She cleaned up the table and started washing the dishes. She noticed the sapphire stone on her ring finger. This wasn't the first time she noticed it. This was proof that she was engaged, so then, it could only be Shigure who had given her that ring. Again, this was another event that she didn't recall.

"Tohru!" Shigure called for her from the hall.

"Yes." She quickly wiped her wet hands and headed in the direction of his voice.

"Aya just called, he said that he wants to meet us at his shop in an hour. His calendar is fully booked and he doesn't have any open slot for the next two weeks, so we need to come to his shop today to try on your dress." Shigure informed her of his phone conversation.

"Okay, I'll go and get ready right away." She ran upstairs, changed, and came back downstairs to put on her outdoor shoes.

"Yuki! Kyo! Don't go wrecking the house while I'm gone!" He shouted to the two younger cousins who were upstairs in their rooms. He knew that he wouldn't have to worry about that anymore, but felt the urge to say it anyways.

Shigure gave Tohru a warmed smiled and addressed a hand out to escort her to the shop. She reached out for his hand slowly feeling hesitant as her fingers bent in and out. "It's okay." He said. She took in a deep breath and relaxed her hand in his.

On the way to Ayame's place, Tohru was thinking; there must be a reason why she agreed to marry him, but why couldn't she remember. Since she couldn't remember; she decided to ask him. "Shigure?" She looked down at the hand that wore the ring.

"Yeah?" He replied.

"I wanted to ask you about this for the last couple of days now."

"Okay, what is it?"

"This ring…" She held up her arm to show him. "…was it from you?"

"Yes, of course. You don't like it?" He asked teasingly.

"No, it's lovely. I just didn't remember that's all."

"And about our marriage…" Her voice started to shake. "Were we in love?"

He jerked back, turned around to meet her blue eyes and released her hand. "You don't remember?" He asked knowingly well that she didn't. She dropped her head, shook and found the concrete beneath her feet. He lifted her chin and leveled his down with hers. "Let me help you remember." She closed her eyes realizing what he was going to do. If they were in love, then this should be normal. Before he could touch her lips, she was pulled away by a platinum blonde.

"Shigure, you don't want to do that in public!" Ayame said heatedly. Tohru blushed and Shigure looked at the snake with a naughty smile.

"Ayame, what are you doing here? We're supposed to meet you at your shop." Shigure returned Ayame's sneer.

"Yeah, I just couldn't wait any longer, so I decided to pick you up. If I hadn't come when I did, then you and Tohru would… would…"

"Would what?"

"Kiss!"

"It's not like it would be the first time that we kiss." Shigure replied, chuckled and continued with a low and mocking voice. "Oooh, we kiss more than once, but I just didn't have a chance to sink in deep yet."

Tohru stood between the two men. Her face turned into a crimson red color while the two sharply stared at each other. Then Ayame pouted and stomped away in front, leading the way to his shop. Shigure and Tohru followed behind. Still blushing, she noticed that Shigure had a little smile on his face; a smile that she never seen before. "Shigure?"

"Hmm?"

"What was that all about?" She asked finding the weird grin still on his face.

"What?" He replied while staring at Ayame's slender body walking in front of them.

"Ayame… It looked like he was mad at you or something."

"Oh that. Don't worry that's just normal."

"Normal?" Her browed winkled up.

"Yeah."

"So, he gets mad at you often?"

"No."

"I don't understand."

"There is no need for you to understand."

"But, if we are together, then shouldn't I know more about you. It seemed weird that Ayame is acting furious toward you. Did something happen between the two of you which I had forgotten?"

"Oh, Tohru. You're just so sweet! That's what I loved about you; you're always concerned about others, but there isn't a thing that you'll need to worry about." His response silent Tohru as they reached the front door of Ayame's shop.

Ayame had already gone into the shop to get the outfits ready for them to try on. They opened the door and entered.

"Ta-daaa! So, what do you think? Isn't it lovely?" Ayame asked Tohru who was staring at the dress. It was simple, but beautiful. It was a white silk, strapless on top with four layers of fabric one over the other. "So, let's try it on." The speechless Tohru smiled and nodded. Ayame asked his assistance to help Tohru and she followed the woman into the dressing room. He then turned around to face the other man, "Shigure, you should try on your suit too."

"What, shouldn't we wait for Tohru?"

"No."

"But…"

Ayame didn't allow any time for Shigure to talk his way out. He shoved the other man into the dressing room two doors down from where Tohru was. Tohru could faintly hear the two of them arguing.

"Not now!" Shigure argued.

"Why not?" Ayame locked his fierce yellow eyes on Shigure's dark brown ones. "Tohru is putting on her dress, so you should dress up for her as well. Let… me… help… you… change." He stepped forward and pulled the fabric belt off Shigure's waist to expose the man's chest. Without the belt the kimono was pretty much loose and easy to pull off.

"Aya! I can do this by myself!" Shigure resisted and turned away to find the dressing mirror reflecting him and Ayame behind him.

Ayame looked at the reflected Shigure in the mirror. He reached his hands up and under the other man arms, rubbing his fingers on the hem lining of the kimono against the other's man chest. "Now lets remove this, you can't change if you're still clothed." He slowly slipped the gown off the taller man's shoulders.

"Come on, don't play games now…" Shigure said while he was trying hard not to be tempted by the situation.

"Look who's talking. You're the one that's playing around not me. Here turn around and put this on." Ayame handed him a white long blouse.

"It's not like that, you don't understand." Shigure took the shirt and put it on.

Ayame sighed, "Oh, but I do… you always do this to me, first with your editor and now with Tohru!" He cried.

Shigure couldn't avoid his temptation any longer. The looked on Ayame's flaring eyes roused up his gun. "It's because you're so fun to play with and that the more reason why I…" He meshed their lips together.

Tohru couldn't hear them clearly, but she was able to hear Shigure softly groaned or was it Ayame, she couldn't tell the difference.

Ayame pulled away, "You do this every time! Getting me all worked up and then… and then…" He breathed heavily, hot air escaped from his mouth.

Shigure stepped forward this time, "This is how you turn me on… with your flames." He whispered.

"Stop it!" Ayame tried to avoid the other's man gaze this time and handed him a pair of slack that matched his hair color. "Here put on your pants."

Shigure slipped it on, but couldn't pull it up all the way. "It's too tight!" He looked at the yellow eyed man who was staring between the zippers.

"I can see that." The snake replied bluntly as he found a pair hungered dog eyes focusing on his lips.

"So…"

"What?"

"Aren't you gonna help me change?" Shigure ran his fingers into the smooth long platinum hair. "I'm waiting."

Ayame found the weird smile on other man's face. It was the smile that Tohru saw early; the smile that Shigure always had when they were together. The blonde man gave in.

Shigure sniggered.

"This… um… is… um… not funny!" The blonde mumbled.

"Stop talking!" The dog growled.

Tohru didn't understand what was happening between the two men in the other dressing room. She couldn't help but wondered and asked the other woman who was in the dressing room with her. "Do you know what's going on between Shigure and Ayame?"

The assistance blushed into a red tomato color and shook her head, "No! Why do you asked?"

"It sounded like they were fighting."

The assistance took a few seconds to allow her racing blood pressure to calm down. She knew exactly what the two men were doing, but didn't want to stick her nose into places that it didn't belongs nor did she wanted Tohru to be concerned. "They're not fighting." She said as she finished dressing the bride.

"No?"

"No."

"I'm glad."

"Now, let's go out to the front of the shop. There's a larger folding mirror where you can have a better view of the dress." The woman walked Tohru back out. The bride to-be looked at herself in the mirror and smiled at her reflection. The assistance helped fluff the dress and mark the final notation for the alteration.

Meanwhile, the two men were still in the dressing room. Shigure was able to pull up his pants now and Ayame helped him tucked in his blouse while facing the mirror. "We don't want to leave your bride waiting long now, do we?" The snake teased standing behind his lover's back.

"Yah." Shigure agreed, but then again stirred up his blonde lover. "It's all your fault you know?"

"What? How can it be my fault? You started it!" The snake argued back.

"Yes, but everything would ended up nicely with her choosing Kyo. Then the accident… If you hadn't reminded her, then I wouldn't be here trying on this outfit."

"You should have warned me. I didn't know that she lost her memories."

"I tried to pull you away at the hospital, but you wouldn't listen."

"I was angry!" Ayame looked away to the side as he leaned his head against the taller man's broad shoulders. "After you got engaged with Tohru, you hadn't contact me as often, so I thought that you and her were… you know."

"This is not like you. You have a lot more confident than this."

Ayame stretched out his arms to wrap the warm body in front of him and softly he said, "Everyone has a weakness, no man alive can say that he is perfect. I may say so all the time to convince myself that I am perfect, but it's not true at all. I do have a weakness and my weakness… is you." He paused as rub his face against the firmness of Shigure's back. "I love you." He paused again. "The slightest thought of losing you to Tohru is unbearable. Even though, I knew that you were just scheming a plot for her and Kyo, but I just couldn't stand knowing that there was a slight chance that she'll pick you instead. Tohru is a miracle girl. Everyone likes her, even I like her, and so do you. She can easily take you away from me."

Shigure turned around to embrace the slender figure into his arms. "You're jealousy is something you know that?"

"What? How can I not be?" Ayame looked up to see those hungered eyes from earlier, now satisfied and now admiring him.

Shigure held on tight as he fancied the gorgeous face that was staring at him. "But it's also something that I've always liked about you." Then he kissed those lips that were on his skin earlier thrusting his way down into the other's man throat. When Ayame couldn't breathe anymore, he released the blonde's soften lips to allow them to gasp for air. While the blonde stood in his arm breathing heavily; he found himself aroused, feeling contented from the sight of his lover's panting. This picture of Ayame made his heart pounds as he rubbed his fingers onto those panted wet lips. "You should know… that you're the only one that makes my heart race like this... and the only one that gets me out of control."

"But you're marrying someone else." The panted lover said in between his breathing.

"It's not going to change anything."

"But… I don't… I don't want to share you with anyone."

"You won't have too." Shigure assured his lover, caressing the soft porcelain skin of his face and gently wiped away the liquid films were forming on his lover's bright yellow eyes. "I'll tell her the truth when the time comes. The poor girl had enough going on as is and we don't want to jeopardize her health at the time being. We need to give her time to remember Kyo."

"But, what if she doesn't remember? Then, you'll just marry her then?" Ayame asked with a serious expression.

"Shhh…" Shigure quieted him with another passionate kiss. "I'll come to see you tonight, okay?"

Ayame nodded as he gasps for air again.

"Now let's get out of here." Shigure grabbed the matching jacket to his pants, which was hanging on the hook in the dressing room and put it on. He headed out in front and Ayame followed behind.

The two men came out and witnessed a beauty in her purest and astonishing gown. Shigure walked up to her in his fitted suit and complimented her with a warm smile. "You're beautiful."

Ayame said nothing, still trying to catch his breath and smiled in agreement while he's wishing that he was in her shoes at this moment.

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**Back Stage Discussion:**

Smile: I don't know how this happened, but somehow, it just did, so there hate me if you want.

Tohru: What? What happened?

Ayame: You don't know?

Tohru: No.

Shigure: She doesn't need to know.

Tohru: Why? I want to know.

Ayame: I agree, she shouldn't know. It's just best this way.

Tohru: You guys are mean!

Shigure: Anyways, where is Cookie-chan?

Smile: I don't know. She's a busy girl and I was too anxious to post this chapter and so I did. Personally, I love pairing Shigure and Ayame. They make a cute couple, don't you think so?


	15. Memorial

**Chapter 15 – Memorial**

After school, Tohru came home hurriedly to find the kitchen and prepared a huge feast. She packed enough food to feed a dozen people, carried them in a humongous basket, and quietly she walked outside to the porch. There, she stood for a while to admire the clear blue sky, inhaled the sweet scent of the air and felt the sun on her skin. These were the perfect signs of a hot and beautiful summer advancing.

While she enjoyed Mother Nature, she continued to stare into the vast atmosphere above her. She stood and wondered about what happened yesterday. Ayame was acting weird, not that he was any different than usual, but he was definitely bothered by something or someone. First, she was sure the he sounded like he was irritated when Shigure was about to kiss her. Then later, when they were in the dressing room, though she couldn't understand the conversation between the two men, she could still sense some sourness from Ayame's voice. 'Was he in pain? What could Shigure have done to him that caused him to react that way?' She continued to think, allowing her mind to wander off a little, 'Could it be that Ayame is…?' She quickly leveled her eyes down and stared at the pond in the yard. 'But, Shigure is a man and Ayame is also a man, so they couldn't be, could they?' She shook the thought out and headed for the study room.

"Shigure." She called to him. He was inside, reading his research materials for his new novel and had spreaded them out, covering the entire floor with layers of paper. "Shigure? Are you in there?"

"Huh?" He swam through his pool of paper to find the door and opened it. "Oh, hi Tohru, can I help you with something?" He asked.

"I'm going to visit mom, would you like to join me?" She replied.

He sighed, "I'm so sorry. I would love to, but I'm very busy now, you see? I need to submit in 500 pages for my newest project and its due in two weeks, so I don't have time right now."

"Oh, I see…" Feeling a little disappointed, yet she managed to continue, "I'll just go by myself then."

"Wait!" Shigure spotted the cat walking down the hallway toward them. "Kyo can go with you."

"What? Go Where?" Kyo stared at the dog. 'What is he up to?' His brows wrinkled.

"To visit Tohru's mom. It's her memorial today, right?" The older man asked.

"Yes." She replied still holding the basket in her hands.

Kyo froze between his cousin and his love. It's been over a week since the accident, and still, she hadn't had a clue about them being together. All this time, she thought that Shigure was the one that she loved. Kyo couldn't make up his mind; on one hand, he wanted to go, but on the other hand, he didn't want to go. He sighed and wandered his eyes to a corner. 'What if I lose control and scared her away?' He asked himself.

"O, come on, now. You should be a gentleman and help the little lady. Look at that huge basket she's carrying in those tiny hands of hers. The least you can do is hauled it for her." The writer teased.

The sight of the huge basket then caught his eyes. "Are you going to carry that thing all the way to the cemetery?" He asked.

"Yes, it's for mom." She replied, smiling.

"Okay, let's go."

"This is great! Thank you."

"You take care of her for me, okay?" Shigure sneered.

"Yah." Kyo replied and took the basket from her hands and at an instant dropped his weight along with the basket to the floor. "What do you have in here?" He asked, looking surprised.

"Just some foods for mom; they're her favorites."

"But, do you need this much?"

"Guess I overdid it a little."

"Yahha." He mocked.

They both exchanged glances and left the house.

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They arrived at the grave shortly and Tohru laid out the food for her mom. This time visiting her mom, Kyo felt a bit edgy; it felt weird for some reason. He remembered the last time he visited there were more people: Uo, Hana, the Damn Rat, Tohru and himself. Curiously, he asked, "Tohru, why aren't your friends here with you?"

"Well, actually…" She paused, looking at the tombstone. "I wanted for Shigure and me to visit her alone."

Her answer sent a shock wave into Kyo's devastating lungs as it gasped for air that very second. "Why?" He managed.

"Well, it's because I wanted to introduce him to her. After all, he is to be her son-in-law, so I thought that it would be nice for the three of us to sit down, eat, talk and get to know each other. It appears that I don't know much about him, other than the fact that he's a novelist. "

"Then… are you disappointed that I'm here instead of him?" He asked, looking at her the tip of her hair that was touching the base of the monument.

She turned around, still on her knees and look up at him. "No! Of course not! How could I?" She quickly said as she stood up. 'Why does he look at me like this, every time?'

"Tohru… I…" Kyo's voice sounded uneasy like he wants to tell her something important, but hesitant to let it out.

"Yes…" She replied trying to figure out why he was acting so odd lately.

He inhaled, "Forget it."

"Please, if you have something that you wanted to tell me then say it me now! It feels like you've been trying to avoid me! Is there something that I forgot, something that I should know? Why are you hiding it from me?" She immediately stopped and stared into the cat's eyes. 'What just happened?' She felted like she just snapped at him for no reasons.

"Tohru…" He ran his fingers into her long hair. The smooth texture of her hair was so soft, healthy and glowed with life.

"Kyo…" She closed her eyes trying to calm herself down from the rage that she exploded a minute ago. 'Why did I snap like that?' She didn't understand what was going on, but her heart was pounding and pounding faster every second.

He continued to comb her hair, admiring it, section at a time as he observed the girl in front of him. She wasn't wearing black instead, she was wearing blue today. She was layered in a thin cottoned material that most girls found suitable in a warm day like this one. The dress was a blue color of the sky with white laces from the spaghetti straps on her shoulders down to the hem lining around her chest and arms. Any shade of blue on Tohru had always complimented her eyes and she looked as lovely as ever.

Kyo, though not physically wearing blue; he had been wearing it inside. This color blue represented the complexity of his emotions, the depth of his isolation that he had buried deep down since that awful day. He felt like a lost puppy who doesn't know where to go or what to do. From that day, everything around him was meaningless and nothing seemed to matter anymore.

The blue color that represented his bitterness was also the color of birth, meaning reborn, live and hope. Though he was anxious and depressed from all that happened; he was please to be alone with Tohru now. 'Should I tell her now?' He asked himself. His heart ached, overfilled with desire for her; the pain inside wanted to burst out and let her know how he felt. Without her, he felt empty; he wanted to be whole again. Right now, she's the light at end of his long deserted tunnel; the pissing piece of his puzzle and the only person that could help him feel complete again.

"Toh… ru…" His gentle yet broken voice got her attention as she opened those baffled eyes of hers to meet his. The intense flared from his eyes made the rhythm of her pulse grew faster as she took in quick and shorter breaths. He took her into his arms, crossing them behind her back and rubbed his hands on her exposed arms. She was warm and soft, everything that he could have imagined. He breathed in the sweetness of her hair and slowly he whispered into her ears. "I am… in love with you."

"Love?" Her pulse stopped that very second as she held her breath and mixed feelings indulged her. 'Why is my heart beating like this? It's running the same tune as his… This is wild, I can't stop it.' Without further thoughts, she gripped onto his shirt.

He raised his right hand and ran it into her hair, soothing her, trying to make her feel comfortable. "Try to remember… remember me… remember us…"

"Us?" She questioned his chest.

"Yes, I need you to remember us, remember that one night that we were together. How we couldn't hold back our feelings and melted away in each other's arms. I need to hear those magically words from you again, at least once more."

She released her grip and pulled back a little leaving only a few inches away from him. She looked into his eyes and felt a burning sensation running throughout her entire body and tears somehow accumulated and fogged her eyes. "I… I don't know what to say. I don't understand this feeling." Her hands were trembling while holding onto his arms.

"Don't cry." He reached his fingers to trace along the lining of her eyes.

"I don't want to, but my body couldn't control itself."

"I know exactly how it feels to be out of control. Right now, I want to… I want to kiss you so bad."

She shut her eyes willingly as he caressed her face. The touch of his hand on her face felt so tender; she couldn't resist but to yearn for more. 'Why am I doing this? Why can't I refuse him?' She let loose and eased herself in the comfort in his arms.

He bent down and gently rubbed his lips against her, electricity waves streamed down their bodies together. She pulled back a little from the shock, but he held on and continued to kiss her. She liked it; she liked the touch of his lips on her. It was breath taking as he advanced and wet the cease between her lips, without hesitation she gave him entrance. Little by little, he twisted his passion inside of her, taking her slowly as she swallowed and tasted his kiss; she was swept away to ecstasy.

The contentment and pleasure of this moment was too great to let go. Everything surrounding them had faded away, leaving the two young souls intertwine and lips meshed together finding the other's pulp irresistible as hunger grew and they kept on eating.

Just when, what seemed like a natural bond was building up between them, the clumsy girl tripped over her mom's tomb and Kyo followed her down. The fall broke their connection and gave both of them a fright. Kyo quickly climbed onto his feet and helped her up. She stood, facing him, eyes wide opened as she stared into space and was deep in thoughts. For a while there, she had completely loosen herself and gave in to the most miraculous moment that she had ever experience. She could still felt the simulation in her body as her breathing calm down to its normal pace. 'Why did it felt so good?' She hugged her shaking body as she looks at his concerned expression. 'His lips… his eyes… they're mesmerizing.' She bit down on her bottom lip, trying to control herself; she wanted to taste those lips of his again. 'Why am I feeling like this? Why am I so attracted to him?' At this moment, she realized that she wanted him; she wanted him so bad that she felt disgusted.

"Tohru, what's wrong?" Kyo extended his arms to hold her trembling ones, but she panicked and moved away leaving his hands still in mid-air.

"Please don't."

"Why?" He slowly dropped his arms.

"I'm a horrible person." Her voice shuttered.

"No, what made you say that?"

"I shouldn't be here with you doing this. I'm engaged and it's not fair to Shigure."

"He'll be fine. He won't have any problem with us like this."

"How can you say that? Of course, he will!"

"You still don't remember, do you? This is all his fault… all his mess! He set us all up for his own enjoyment!"

"What are you saying?" Her voice broke as tears started to formulate. Right now, guilt had taken over her strength. She felt treacherous and disloyal to the one she called fiancée.

He saw the mystified expression on her face and he, himself was afraid to approach her any further; she will break if he pushes too hard, so he stopped and sighed. "Let's go home." He swept off the lint from his clothing and grabbed the empty basket. He walked in front and she followed behind. "Tohru!" He called to her. "I don't have eyes in the back of my head, so can you hurry up?"

"I'm sooorry!" She caught up to him, side by side, walking together as she looked at their moving legs synchronized. "I mean it, Kyo… I'm sorry. I don't know what to think anymore."

He sighed, "Look, I will never lie to you and not about something as important as this. I'm in love with you and Shigure knows about it. Maybe, you should ask him. I'm sure that he'll explain it to you, if you ask him about it."

She looked at Kyo from the angle of her eyes. 'He said that he loves me, but do I feel the same for him? Why did I allow myself to melt in his embrace like that?" Her cheeks started to change color as they approached the front of the house.

"Oh, why are you guys back so soon?" Shigure caught them walking in from the porch. "Well, anyways it's good timing because I'm starving! I can't burn any energy writing if I don't have enough nourishment." Tohru was flushing red, walking toward him. "Tohru, is everything okay?"

She met his narrowed, dark eyes examining her burning expression and quickly she looked away. 'Should I ask him? Should I tell him?'

Kyo saw her hesitation and decided to help her get it out, "We…um…"

"I'm fine, nothing happened." Without thinking she quickly interrupted his intention.

"Tohru?" Kyo spoke with a tone of disappointment.

"I'll go get dinner ready." She ran off to the kitchen and left the two men staring at each other.

"So, did anything happen?" Shigure asked curiously.

"What?"

"You know what I mean."

"I don't understand her. Why didn't she… Hgh!"

"So, something did happen."

He took a deep breath and exhaled. "If she said nothing happened, then nothing happened." As he walked away he talked to himself quietly. "Everything is back to where it started…and I'm still… broken." The missing piece of his puzzle was still far from his reach, he realized that he had made the situation between him and Tohru worsen, but if he had a chance to do it over again, then he would've done it just the same. There was no turning back now and may time help her remember…

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**Back Stage Discussion:**

Smile: Come on people! Faster review means faster chapter, don't you get it?

Shigure: I think that you've scared your readers with the last chapter.

Ayame: What, but I like the last chappie. Haahhhh….

Smile: Me too! I'm a yaoi fan, so you can always count me in when there are cute guys.

Shigure: Are you homosexual by any chance?

Smile: No way! I'm straight! Yuri is so disgusting! I could see guys together, but girls… EW…

Ayame: Will there be anymore chappie on me and Shigure?

Smile: No, that's it.

Ayame: Noooo… why not?

Smile: Because… you're not the main characters.

Ayame: Waahhh!

Shigure: Aya, don't cry. We'll always have our time together in the discussion.

Ayame: But I want to be in the story with you!

Shigure: Oh, Aya, come and sit with me. I'll tell you a secret.

Ayame: What secret?

Shigure: Well, it won't be a secret anymore, if I let everyone else know. I'll have to whisper into her ears.

Ayame: Man that tickles!

Shigure: Shut up and listen you squirmy snake!

Kyo: These gay guys are driving me crazy! Can't you just get rid of them?

Smile: No, I'm afraid not. They'll be around for the rest of the story, but just not as intimate as in the last chapter.

Kyo: Then when are you going to get me back with Tohru? I'm going nuts here! This is carrying on forever!

Smile: Well, I could just write. _Tohru remembered. Tohru married Kyo... and the end…_ Is that what you want?

Kyo: Huh?

Smile: Thought so… I think that that will disappoint our readers, too, so not yet, but I'm trying to wrap it up soon. The story should not exceed 20 chapters, so you still have your chances with Tohru.

Kyo: Hgh… girls? They are so hard to understand.


	16. Bittersweet Moments

**Chapter 16 – Bittersweet Moments**

The deadline for Shigure's new project came and his editor also came to collect his work. As always, he had finished those 500 pages, but wouldn't turn them in that easily. He had never given up a chance in seeing his editor cried and begged for his work; seeing her in such condition made him giggles inside with excitement.

"Shigure!" She cried. "You promised!"

"But, I had a writer block and I couldn't finish it. Come back next week, I'll have it done by then."

"No! If you want anything to be published then I need those 500 pages today!"

"No. No. No. I can't give them to you now…" He ran away from his editor, feeling perky as he laughed his way around the house. Before long, he collided into another body as he noticed two flaming bright yellow eyes staring at him.

"What are you doing?" Speaking in a flat tone, those eyes were still staring at him.

"I'm ah…"

"I see… you're having fun without me." The yellow eyed man smirked.

"Come on, now." Shigure tried to cool those flames by rubbing his hand up and down the front of Ayame's red coat. "She doesn't come ever so often, so I just wanted to have some fun with her before she comes back for my next project."

"Shigure!" The editor caught up to him, huffing and puffing for air.

Seeing the anger of his lover's razor-sharp eyes didn't subside; he gave up. "Alright! They're in the top drawer of my desk in my study." He faked a cry and sniffed, "You can just walk inside and get them."

"Oh, thank you so much! I'll go get them and be out of your way." She cried and hurriedly escaped the vicious glare of Ayame's eyes on her.

"Why are you here so early? Didn't we agree to meet around noon?" Shigure asked.

The yellow eyed man pouted, ignored the taller man's question and walked away.

"Aya!" Shigure called from behind as Ayame welcomed himself to the table where Yuki and Kyo were sitting in the living room watching TV.

"What are you doing here?" Yuki asked.

"Can't a brother come and visit once in a while. After all, we need more time to do some bonding." He replied.

"Here we go again." Yuki sighed.

Ayame then noticed that Kyo was sloughing; his head was on the table in front of him and he was wearing a white sleeveless tank-top which showed his nice form, firmed tight and arched, sucked in, down to his navel. "Kyou looks yummy!" He drooled over the boy.

"What the hell?" Ayame's comment caught the cat's attention.

"It's hot today isn't it?" He approached the cat and in a sexy voice, he continued, "Let go play together. I know somewhere else that's even hotter than here."

"Get your dirty look off me, you pervert!" Kyo dropped onto his hands, moving both palms and soles backward to get away from the snake.

"Aya! What's going on?" Shigure came in seeing Ayame crawling over Kyo, cornering him to the back of the room.

"Nothing." The snake replied candidly as he stood up. He noticed that Shigure was a bit bothered by what he saw, but Ayame could care less because that was the whole idea.

At the same time, Tohru came down stairs and found an unexpected guess. She also found Kyo on his elbows and legs, but quickly looked away to greet the guest instead. "Oh. Hi, Ayame! When did you come? Would you like to join us for lunch? I'll have it ready soon."

"Yes! I would love to." He replied and ran up to her. "I'll give you a hand."

She shook her hands frankly above her waist. "No, it's my job. You don't need to help me, just enjoy yourself. I'm sure that you have a lot to talk to Yuki and… Kyo." She caught Kyo staring at her, but ran away to the kitchen to avoid his gaze.

"Tohru…" The cat dropped flat on the floor. "Why?" He asked the ceiling above him.

"Sorry, Kyo… I just can't control myself if I allow our eyes to meet longer than a second. Everyone knows that I'm marrying Shigure, and I shouldn't be thinking about another man other than him." She said as soon as she entered the kitchen.

It had been two weeks since Tohru visited her mom's grave with Kyo. One that very day, she felt like she was under a magical spell during that exotic moment with him, she melted away completely in his arms. She couldn't forget that moment, but at the same time she couldn't forgive herself; she felt unfaithful to Shigure. As much as she wanted to be in those arms again, it was not the right thing to do or at least, it was what she convinced herself to believe. For the past two weeks, she had been trying to avoid Kyo and not allowing herself to fall out of place again.

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Lunch was ready and set; everyone gather together to enjoy the perfect meal prepared by the only girl in the house. Shigure somehow got stuck in the middle between Tohru and Ayame; Kyo and Yuki were on the opposite end of the dining table; Kyo faced Ayame while Yuki faced Tohru. During the meal, Shigure discussed his plan for the weekends.

"Tohru. Kyo. Yuki." Shigure began after he took another sniff of his delicious food.

"Yes. Yah. Yeah." All three replied at the same time.

"Ayame and I had booked an engagement for all of us this weekend."

"An engagement?" All three asked at the same time.

"Yes, we're going to the Sohma's beach house!"

"WHAT?" All three surprised at the same time.

"Our senior class is taking a three night trip to Okinawa in the beginning of June, so we'll be going to beach then." Yuki explained.

"That's right we'll be going on the school trip soon, so you shouldn't be spending unnecessarily expenses on us and I don't want to be a bother to you and Ayame…" Tohru as usual tried to be considerate.

"It's no bother at all. I love planning trips like these; you get to go out and have fun plus you could be with the one you love." Ayame perked looking at Tohru and then at Kyo. She followed his eyes' movement to Kyo and quickly looked away.

"I don't care." Kyo said in a flat, dull tone of voice. "You guys can do whatever just don't get me involve."

"No, but you must come! You'll ruin everything if you don't!" Ayame aimed his two vicious snake's eyes at the younger man.

"Huh? What's that suppose to mean?" Kyo didn't understand the vicious glare from his weird white blonde cousin.

"Never mind him. So what if you're going to Okinawa. That's three weeks from now and you can always go to the beach more than once, especially in warm weathers like these. Anyways, everything is planned and paid for, so you cannot talk yourself out of it. We're not planning to go for a swim or anything; we'll be having a barbeque. We'll also be spending the night over, so after lunch, you three go pack. We'll wait for the rest of the gang to arrive and leave together." Shigure explained.

"But…" Tohru tried to refuse again.

"Tohru…" Shigure took her hands. "I didn't have time for you in the past two weeks, so let me make it up to you with this trip."

Ayame excavated a sharp and firmed touch underneath the table.

"Ow!" Shigure yelled out his pain.

"What's wrong?" Tohru asked.

"Nothing…" He laughed nervously as he rubbed his pain. "Everyone must go, and that's final."

"Hah…" Yuki sighed. "I guess we cannot say no then, so who else did you guys invited?"

"We invited Hari, but he's too busy with work, so he couldn't go. Kagura is joining us and so is Kisa. Since Kisa is going Hiro wanted to go too. Momiji heard about the trip and wanted to go, but he and Haru have to study for exams, so they couldn't go either." Shigure replied.

Yuki added the headcount. "So there are eight of us in total."

"That's right." Ayame smiled.

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They arrived four hours later at the Sohma's beach house in a luxurious van loaded with food and supplies. Everyone hauled in their baggage and dropped their asses on the couch, exhausted as the rested in the main room.

"Okay, I admit that it wasn't a fun ride getting here, but everyone should find their room and rest for a while. We'll get the barbeque started in an hour or two. Everyone should be hungry by then." Shigure started to assign room. "Okay, we have four rooms in the building, so we'll need to pair up in each room."

"But, we don't have an even number of each gender, so we'll end up having one room with both." Yuki observed.

"Yes, that is the plan. Tohru will be with me."

"What?" Both Kyo and Ayame shouted at the same time.

"Well, we are fiancée, so it's just natural that we stay together, right Tohru." Shigure looked at her, sitting on the couch, legs together, head down and embarrassed by his assignment. He grinned and continued, "Ayame will be with Yuki, Kyo with Hiro and Kagura with Kisa. Okay, everyone move and get settle into your rooms upstairs."

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Shigure dragged his fiancée into their room. He was so excited that he dropped right down onto the bed. "Wow! This bed is bouncy." He described. "Tohru, come and sit next to me."

Tohru came slowly and sat down on the edge of the soft bed. Nervously she said, "Shigure… you see, I'm… I'm not ready for this yet."

"Huh? What are you talking about?"

"You know…" She started broiling, her body temperate shown on her face.

"Tohru… you didn't think that I would… you did, didn't you?" He laughed.

She was speechless; she didn't know what to say, so she just nodded.

"Don't worry; I'll sleep on the couch tonight, so you don't have to worry about a thing. I'm not going to do anything inappropriate at least not until we get married." He replied.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have thought about you like that."

He turned over onto his side. "You don't need to apologize. I am a man after all and I have my needs, but I have to control myself until that special day." He smiled sincerely, "Now, you should lie down and rest because later, there will be lots of cooking to do."

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It was time for the barbeque, Shigure and Ayame lit the coals and started the grill. Kyo, Yuki and Hiro carried the foods into the kitchen for the girls to prepare.

"I've never had a barbeque on the beach before." Tohru spoke to the bowl of drumsticks mixed in with barbeque sauce.

"This is wonderful, isn't it? I love the ocean and being here with everyone like this is fun." Kisa replied cheerfully as she chopped the carrots and radishes.

"Yes, I agree." Kagura said while making sniffling noises from slicing the onions.

"I'm done with the drumsticks, but we still have beefs and trouts and…" Tohru paused and found Shigure through the little window between the kitchen and the patio. "Shigure, do you think that you and Ayame brought too much food?"

"No, it's always better to have more than not enough." Shigure replied with a big charming grin.

"Do you want to start with the chicken first, or wait for me to marinate the rest of the food?"

"No, we should start. There is so much food and it will take us all night if we don't start now." He turned around and found the cat who was staring at the shore. "Kyo, can you go inside and get the chickens for me?" He called to the cat.

"What?" The cat turned around. "You're right there, why don't you go and get it?" He snarled.

"I need to watch the grill and you don't want the house to burn down while I'm gone now, do you?" The dog smiled cunningly.

The cat rolled his eyes. He saw Yuki was chit chatting with Hiro and Kisa on the staircase, and thought that the rat could do it instead. "Why won't Yu…"

"Just shut up and get it!" The dog growled.

Ayame shook his head and laughed. "That boy is so dense."

Kyo walked into the kitchen. Kisa greeted him, Kagura gave him a silent smile and Tohru looked away finding Shigure and Ayame outside; they appeared to be having fun talking about something. Kyo approached the long chestnut hair girl. "I'm here for the chickens." He said bluntly as he looked at her hesitant expression. She handed over the bowl of marinated drumsticks to him. He took hold of it with both hands and slightly braced his fingers over hers. She pulled them back nervously. "Do you hate me now? Is that it?" He asked her.

"No." She replied, still looking away.

"Then, why are you avoiding me? When we're talking; you won't even look at me in the eyes anymore."

"I… I don't hate you… I…" She quickly looked at him, her expression, terrified and confused. 'How can I tell him? I'm shameless; I've been thinking about him all this time.'

He took in a deep breath, looked into her blue eyes once more and left the room. He handed the bowl of chicken to Shigure and got off the patio to find a seat on the shore. "Tohru… why?" He asked the setting sun. "Why are you avoiding me? I don't understand. Why must it be so complicated between you and me?" He took a handful of sand and tossed it into the waves.

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The girls came out to the patio after they cleaned up in the kitchen. Kagura looked around and didn't see the cat. "Where is Kyo? I thought that he was out here with you guys." She asked.

"I think he took a stroll. He looked upset earlier when he brought out the chicken." Hiro replied.

'Oh, Kyo… I'm so sorry.' Tohru apologized in silent.

"Kisa, the food is almost done, so let's eat together, okay?" Hiro asked his little love.

"Sure." She smiled, cute as ever.

"Yeah, I think that we've cooked enough here, so someone should go and get Kyo before the food gets cold." Ayame said.

"I'll go." Kagura volunteered.

Immediately, Tohru felt irritated. The thought of Kagura and Kyo together somehow disturbed her.

"Tohru, is something wrong?" Yuki asked her.

She denied it right away. "Nothing… Nothing at all." She walked up to Shigure. "It looks like you and Ayame made a great team here. Is there anything else that I can help you with?"

"Of course, I need you to eat. It looked like you've been losing weight, so I need you to replenish and be healthy for our wedding day." Shigure's straightforwardness made her blushed.

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Kagura found Kyo sitting on the sand staring into space. She slowly sat down beside him without him noticing. "So, I guess Tohru hasn't remembered yet." She said.

He turned to his side and found her, "What are you doing here?"

"The food is ready, so I came to let you know. We should head back; it's getting cold out here."

"You go on ahead. I need some time alone." The night was setting as the first storm of wind blew and lathered its cold breeze on Kyo's skin; he folded up he legs into his chest and hugged them.

"Come on, you'll get sick out here wearing just that. Let's go back."

"Just leave me alone."

"Kyo…" Her heart ached, feeling guilty for seeing him like this; if it wasn't for her, then he would be with Tohru right now and he wouldn't end up like a living zombie. "I'm so-o-o sorry." Her voice started to break.

The cat sighed, "What's done is done and it wasn't entirely your fault, so just forget it."

"Kyo, but I…"

"What?" He dropped his arms and looked at her.

"Nothing. I'll go back now, but promise me that you'll head back soon too, okay?"

"Yeah."

She sighed both from relief and frustration as she stood up, her sandal slipped and her toes buried into the sand. She fell forward and landed her weight on top of him. "O…" She cried facing down against his chest. He had opened his arms and held onto her that instant to break her fall. She clung closer; she didn't want to leave him. "I know that you love Tohru, but I can't help myself." Tears started to soak his white, thin layer tank top. She snuggled closer and softly she said, "Kyo, I'll try to put my feelings aside for you…for your sake."

"Kagura…" He said, still holding on to her waist. "I know. I understand how you feel, but there is only one person that I love and you already know who it is. I'm sorry, but I cannot return your feelings."

"No, don't be. It's nothing that you can control. Just like me, I can't control how I feel about you. I know that you don't want me, yet I still love you so much."

"I'm sure that there is someone out there that is made just for you."

"Oh, Kyo…" She hugged him tighter, thought hard and felt that this was her last chance and if she didn't ask him now; she'll live the rest of her live regretting it. "Can you do me one last favor?"

"What?"

She lifted her head up and slowly, she pleaded, "A kiss. One last kiss and I'll be out of your way forever."

The desperate looked from her eyes reminded him of his own desperation, feeling sympathy he agreed to her wish. He turned her over and slowly he gave her a gentle kiss. Kagura was overjoyed; nothing could describe her happiness at that moment. Tears of glee washed down her face uncontrollably as she sat up to wiped them.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I'm so happy, that's all." She cried and laughed at the same time. "This is the first time that you kissed me…" She explained and managed another smile, "…and it's also the last."

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At the same exact moment when those lips creased together, a shadow from afar felt its heart stopped beating. A knife had crave its way in and rapture it from the inside, opening a scar, an unbearable yet familiar pain that shut down every nerve of its body creating two unbelievable sad eyes.

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Back at the patio, everyone else was enjoying themselves, eating and talking about their plan for the summer. Shigure, of course bragged about his wedding and Tohru to be the most beautiful bride ever. This obviously made Ayame envious, so he ignored the subject and focused his attention on Yuki instead. Kisa and Hiro were so cute together; they took turn to feed each other.

"It's been almost an hour and neither Kyo nor Kagura are back yet. Do you think that something had happened to them?" Yuki asked.

"There isn't anyone else on this beach, but us, so they should be okay." Shigure replied.

"But Kyo and Kagura should be back by now." Ayame added. "Yuki, why don't you go and get them. That Kyo can be very stubborn and that's probably why it's taking Kagura so long to get him back here."

"That stupid cat is just so… stupid." Yuki said and headed out to search for the cat.

"Look!" Kisa pointed to a figure that was running back to the house. "It's Sissy, she's back."

Tohru ran to the front of the house and quickly went upstairs.

"Odd… why did she come in through the front when we're here in the back?" Ayame asked.

"The way that she was running looked like something was bothering her." Hiro observed.

"Really, then I should go and check on her." Shigure suggested.

"Yeah." Ayame, Hiro and Kisa agreed.

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In the room, Tohru was crying her heart out burying her head into the white fluffy pillow of her bed. "Why?" She asked the pillow. "He said that he loved me, so why is he kissing her?" She kept flustering over her thoughts. Did it even matter that he kissed another girl? She never told him that she wanted him. He didn't belong to her, so he had every right to kiss whoever he wants, but it hurt so much to see it, to see the one she desired kissing someone else.

"Tohru. Tohru." Shigure called from outside the bedroom.

She heard him opening the door and quickly hid away her tears.

"Tohru, is everything all right?" He entered the room, shut the door behind him and he walked up to her. She was sitting up with the wet pillow faced down on her laps, looking outside the window, and her back facing him.

"I'm okay." She managed a clear tone of voice.

He sat down at the opposite end of the bed. "Are you sure? It's not healthy to lie."

"Huh...?" She shivered. "I'm sorry."

"Did something happen? Do you want to talk about it?" He asked.

She whimpered in fear. 'Should I tell him?'

"I know that something was bothering you earlier when you said that you need to take a walk and insisted to go alone. Then, when you came back running like you did. I knew that something is definitely troubling you, so why don't to tell me what's on your mind."

"Shigure!" She flew into his arms, face on his chest, tears on his kimono and sobbed.

"That's good, just get it all out. You'll feel better after you do." He comforted her as he ran his fingers down her head.

After it appeared that Tohru had no more tear to shed, she stopped and apologized again. "I'm sorry."

"No, I wasn't there for you when you needed me, but you can always count on me when you need a shoulder to cry on." He said as he slowly pulled her away from him, giving him enough room, so that he could wipe off the remaining tears from her eyes. "Now, what could have made these beautiful eyes of yours cried like that?"

"I…"

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but you'll feel a lot better if you do."

'How can I tell him? He's so kind to me and I betrayed him.' She thought as she saw his dark brown eyes seeping concern.

"Does it have anything to do with Kyo?" He asked and her eyes wide opened. "I thought so…"

She narrowed her eyes again as she heaved a sigh. "I'm sorry, I know that I'm engaged and I shouldn't be thinking about someone else, but I just couldn't stop thinking about him. I haven't been faithful to you."

'Only if you knew.' He chuckled silently. "It's okay that you have feelings for him because I know that you like him." She released her clutch from the kimono and pulled back a little more. "I think it's time that I tell you the truth." He continued.

"The truth?" She stared at him.

He sighed. "Yes, you see, from the beginning, I lied to you, so that you would accept my marriage proposal."

"A lie?" Now he startled her.

"Well, not completely. I told you that Kyo and Yuki were sick and promised you that I will cure their sickness if you were to marry me. You were so terrified and worried about them that you accepted my proposal. Along with the marriage, I also made a compromise."

"A compromise?" She asked again, still bewildered.

"The intention of the compromise was to help you decide between the three of us: Kyo, Yuki and I; which one of us will be your groom. It didn't matter who you'll picked because my promise was the same. I promised to cure the sickness that aroused in both Kyo and Yuki no matter who you decided to marry. Before you lost your memories, it appeared that you chose Kyo."

"I did?" She didn't remember such event ever occurred.

"Well, you didn't actually say you did, but the tension between you and Kyo made it obvious and that was also when I'd fulfilled my promise to you. The sickness that was bothering Kyo and Yuki was not any physical illness that you could see. They were like two balloons that were growing and growing everyday. Their emotions were compressed within the growing walls of each balloon and as they got larger; they wanted to express their feelings, but were too hesitant to do so or maybe too afraid to find out the result. That was where I came in, by asking for your hand in marriage, it caused their balloons to explode. When their balloons popped, all the feelings inside were expressed and found the places where they belong. At the end, you found Kyo, Kyo found you and Yuki found his way out of the love triangle, realizing his true feelings and that he was an extra wheel; he reconciled his differences and move on. So, in result, your decision helped me to fulfill my promised and cured the unseen sickness within everyone."

Tohru took a few minutes to allow Shigure's explanation to sink in, but in her current condition; it didn't help her. "I'm sorry, but I'm too confused. I don't understand. I don't remember any of this."

"It doesn't matter anymore. What happened in the past is now history. Now you should be concern of what's ahead. Like I said, Yuki is out of the picture and since you never announced that you chose Kyo, I remain to be your fiancée. Now that I had told you everything; I leave it to you to decide. I know that you're very confused now and I don't want to be too pushy on you, but I could see that without your memories, you were still able to develop feelings for Kyo. I noticed that you were acting strangely since the day you came back from the cemetery, but I kept quiet to see if my suspicion was right and it looks like I was right, right?" He paused to find an answer from her, but she looked away and didn't respond. He observed her remorse expression and continued, "I could also tell that Kyo still loves you and if it's him that you want instead of me, then I'll gladly step aside let him be your groom."

"But…" The thought of Kyo and Kagura still lingered. She didn't know if he still loved her or had he found his heart somewhere else instead, somewhere with Kagura. She again buried her head into Shigure's chest, but her thoughts were about Kyo. 'This is all my fault, if I hadn't ran away, if I didn't avoid him, if I were to be true to my feelings, then it wouldn't end up this way. Could he still be in love with me after how I treated him?' Regrets and uncertainty filled her as she sat quietly in Shigure's arms.

After another long silent, he spoke softly to her hair, "You don't need to give me an answer right away. Take your time and think about it. I'm sure that you'll make the right decision."

His kind words made her realized that she had only been thinking of herself. What about him? How did he feel about this? He must have some feelings for her to propose as he did. What will happen to him if she chooses Kyo? Could he truly be okay with it? Question after question were running through her little head. "Shigure… I'm so sorry. I'm so selfish; I didn't even think about your feelings."

"You don't owe me any apology. It should be me; I should be the one apologizing to you. I'm the one who've put you in this situation. You don't need to worry about me."

She broke away from his chest. "But…"

"No more buts…" He shook his head in front of her.

"Okay." She agreed softly as she focused deeper into the eyes of the man before her and wondered. "Shigure…"

"Yeah."

"How do you feel about me? Have I disappointed you? Can you still love a girl like me?" She asked.

Her question startled him; he blinked once and he blinked twice. "What do you mean? Of course, I love you. Who can not love you?"

"Then, would you kiss me?" She asked shyly.

Double shocked; he jerked back a little. "Why so sudden?"

"I just wanted to know if I could return your feelings. For the longest time, I thought of you as a brother, but just recently it slightly changed. Maybe, it's because of our engagement and my missing memories, yet I think that I could, if I tried very hard; I will be able to love you as a man and not as a brother."

'This doesn't sound good.' He thought. "What about Kyo? I thought that you like him."

"I do, but I don't know what to think anymore, between you and Kyo, I'm lost. I'm stuck in middle and I don't know if I should go left or right. He said that he loves me and so do you. Plus, he has…" She paused, shook out the image of him and Kagura and re-directed her attention to the person in front of her. "My mind is scattered." She paused again and thought hard. "I can't think anymore. I need you to help me to find my center. Right now, I need to feel it." Her voice started to break as she shook her head slowly and pleaded, "Words… don't make sense anymore… Please help me… I need to feel it to understand… to decide…"

He stared at the baffled girl and knew that something was definitely wrong between her and Kyo, but there was nothing that he could do right now to help her and there was no way that he could refuse her request either, so he leaned forward and gently kissed her, holding her in his arms. His kiss was different. It didn't give her the thrilled that Kyo did, but it was sweet in its own special way. He broke the kiss slowly and saw her cheeks turning red, feeling awkward about the situation he quickly remembered a special event that he and Ayame had planned for the night. "Tohru, why don't you go wash up and come outside with me?"

"Why?" She asked still feeling a bit embarrassed from the kiss.

"Aya bought fireworks for us tonight. I think that he and the others should have them ready by now, so we should be out there and have fun with everyone. We don't want to keep them waiting for too long."

"Okay." She agreed softly.

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Like Shigure said, the barbeque was done and everyone had gather together to start the fireworks. Everyone was securely dressed and they even brought along blankets just in case it was too cold.

"Big sis! Come and play with us, we're having so much fun! Hiro is great with the fireworks! Look…!" She pointed into the night sky, the sounds of three sizzling rockets ascended consecutively into the dark sparkling sky and a blast exploded, colored the night with more colors; first a small blue flower appeared and as it get larger, it turned purple, red, pink and slowly flake of yellow line fell, sprinkling above the ocean waves.

"It's beautiful…" Tohru said admiring the wonderful atmosphere above them.

"Thank you, Grandpa Shigure. Thank you, Grandpa Ayame. It was very nice of you two for inviting us here." Kisa said happily in her little girlish, cute, kiddy tone of voice.

"You're welcome." Both men replied.

"There is more! So much more! Kisa, let's go! I want you to play with me." Hiro said excitingly as he pulled Kisa away with him.

"It looks like everyone is having fun." Shigure observed.

"Yup!" Ayame replied.

"But, what's wrong with Kyo? Why is he just sitting there all by himself?" Shigure asked.

The sound of Kyo's name caught Tohru's attention as she found him sitting at the end, further, furthest away from everyone and was staring into the sky.

"I don't know. Since he came back with Kagura; he's been like that. It looks like he's in deep thoughts trying to solve some unresolved mysterious." Ayame replied.

'Kyo… Are you thinking about me right now or is it Kagura?' Tohru wondered as she saw Kagura came over and pulled him up by his hands; she tensed up that instant and creased her eyes tightly together. 'I shouldn't be acting like this, after all, I did the exact same thing.'

Ayame saw her and quietly whispered into the taller man's ear. "What happened to her? You didn't do anything out of line did you?"

Shigure laughed nervously, "Of course not." And quickly he snatched the lighter from Ayame's hand, "I want to play too."

"Shigu! That's mine, give it back!" Ayame chased Shigure around in circles. Tohru and Kisa stood looking at each other then to the two grown men and laughed.

After a few laps, Shigure stopped abruptly when he spotted something interesting in sight. Ayame smashed into the man in front and bounced off onto the beach's surface. "Wow, look at that one! It's humorous!" Shigure exclaimed pointing to the largest firework that he had ever seen.

"Yeah, I saved that one for you; it's a combo." Ayame stood up and swept the sand off his buttock. "So, do you want to light it now?"

"Yes! Let's get everyone together!" He waved his hands to gather everyone together.

"Come on, Kyo! Let go!" Kagura pulled him over to Shigure. Yuki, Hiro and Kisa followed behind.

"Okay, let's color the sky with this baby." Shigure said with excitement in his tone. "Aya, give Kyo one of those sparkling lighter."

"Kay…" The snake replied and shoved a lighter into Kyo's hand.

"This is a big one, on the count of three let's all light this bomb together!" Shigure splurged.

"Lets!" Everyone shouted in agreement. "One, two, three and light!"

Burning sparks immediately ignited from the tail, rapidly reaching the base of the bomb and a "BOOM" blasted out. The shell dropped onto the sandy beach's surface, while its mass expanded and rose into the dark twinkling sky. A rainbow of colors lighted the sky; it was the most eye-catching sight ever. Everyone admired the radiant night and relaxed themselves to enjoy a once in a life time, spectacular moment. Even the cat was dazed by all the colors that he had never seen before. At that moment, Shigure and Kagura caught each other's glances and nodded in agreement; both were thinking of the same idea. Slowly, without the cat noticing, he and another body was only inches away, fingers touching as he turned around still holding onto the lighter in his hand; sparkling lights, glints of bright white flares highlighting his dark red eyes as he met a pair of glittering deep blue eyes staring at him. They stood in silent, mesmerized by the sparks between them and found a tiny ounce of happiness within their heart and so, they smiled.

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**Back Stage Discussion:**

Smile: Wow! I think that this is the longest chapter that I've written so far. It's not exactly how I wanted it to turn out, but… here it is.

Shigure: Yeah, you're right and it was packed with the most nonsense ever!

Smile: What do you mean by that?

Shigure: I felt like a total idiot in this chapter! When did I become a pussy about Aya? I should be the one in control here. Why is he bossing me around? That just spoiled all my fun…FUN!

Ayame: How can you say that you bastard?

Shigure: Well, it's more fun seeing you getting all jumpy than having you go bruising my ass!

Yuki: That's enough whining from you!

Shigure: Wah! Now your brother is yelling at me! See what I mean Smile?

Smile: Right… I can care less…

Shigure: What? You're mean to me too… (sniff sniff)

Smile: Well, sor-rie… I just type whatever crossed my mind.

Kyo: That's not good enough! Tell me when I'll be with Tohru!

Smile: Don't get me pissed you love sick jerk!

Tohru: Please everyone calm down. We're all work together here, so let's see some team spirit and stop fighting.

Yuki: Tohru is right.

Smile: Hahhh… okay. Just hang in there with me and I'll give you an ending soon.

Tohru: What's going to happen next?

Smile: I'll give you a sneak preview. It's what you've been waiting for or at least the beginning of it plus an unexpected pairing.


	17. Acknowledgment

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Smile: Hello, it's me, the troubled heart fan-writer who cannot get Kyo and Tohru together fast enough. I'm sorry for the slooooow update, but I'm making it up with another long chapter. I know you probably just want to continue and read the new chapter, but I just want to clarify a few comments from the last chapter. First, I agree completely that Ayame and Hiro were both out of character, but like I said before, it's more fun when I mess around with the characters. In my opinion, everyone is out of character. Second, regarding Kisa chopping food in the kitchen and Hiro lighting the fireworks, I say that they are both about 14 years old in my story, so it's safe for Kisa to be using a knife and Hiro with a lighter. Third, regarding the school trip, I was advised by Klove0511 that the school trip in Fruits Basket occurs in the second year not the third. This is a mistake on my part, but since I'd already mentioned it, I'll just continue with it. After all, this is my story and I don't want to go back to revise that damn chapter 16. I've already revised it four times! Fourth, regarding the last part where Shigure and Kagura met in agreement, they're not falling for each other or anything like that. I thought that you could read through the lines and read my mind. _"Slowly, without the cat noticing." _Shigure slowly pushes Tohru and Kagura pushes Kyo, so that the two ended up together between the sparks and under the colorful sky. Fifth, Shigure is in love with Ayame and not Tohru. The reason why he hadn't told Tohru about Ayame is because… well you'll have to continue reading to find out. Finally, the unexpected paring is here in this chapter and only here in this chapter. If you like this pairing, then that's great, but I'm not going to develop their relationship any further, because my main focus is to get Tohru back with Kyo.

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**Chapter 17 – Acknowledgment**

Another three weeks came to past and the senior's school trip arrived. Luggages and duffle bags were stacked up like a mountain. For a three night trip, some may had overdone it. The students were at the airport, probably eighty plus in headcounts divided by four classes and that made twenty or more in each class.

Uo could care less about the other classes. "We only have another week until graduation, so let's have lots of funs and make this trip worth wild."

"But it's a school trip, so how fun can it be?" The orange hair boy asked bluntly.

"You stupid Orange-top! Just use your imagination and with me around there is no way that you'll be bored." She folded her arms around his neck and dragged him to the front line. Tohru, Hana and Yuki paced behind, walking calmly yet amused by the blob of orange waving its arms up and down, in the air like a pair of web wings.

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Everyone got onto the plane. "Okinawa here we come!" Uo exclaimed looking outside the window.

"Can you quit it? You're embarrassing." Kyo said.

"What? Kyou afraid to have fun?" She teased.

"Why did I get assigned seat with you anyways?"

"I guessed it's just your lucky day."

"Yeah, right." He mocked.

"So, who do you wanna be with then? Tohru?"

"Shut up!"

"I'm right! You're blushing!"

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On the other side opposite, Yuki, Tohru and Hana were seated together. What a lucky guy he was sitting in between two girls. They appeared to be very up tight at the moment and each gripped onto the sleeve of his shirt as the plane departed and lifted into the sky.

"I guess that this is the first time that you girls fly…" He observed from their nervousness.

"Yes." Both spoke at the same time.

"Well, I could understand Tohru's case, but Miss Hanajima, this is a surprise for me to see you like this."

"What? O… this…" She released his sleeve, hands folded together, in front and on top of her laps.

"I see… underneath that strong mystery mask of yours, there are still some weaknesses."

"I rather, that you don't talk about me like that." She turned toward the window.

Yuki caught another surprise from an angle of her face. 'She's blushing. I never noticed that her cheek could glow in such a rosy color, maybe it's her dark hair; it compliments her complexion.'

"Look, doesn't that cloud looks like a cat?" Hana said, pointing at the cloud outside the window.

"A cat?" The two companions surprisingly responded at the same moment.

Yuki leaned over to see the cat shaped cloud. "Why, yes it does look like a cat." He said, then shifted his weight slowly back down when a pair of dark violet eyes captured him, blinking at him, long, curled lashes opened and closed before him. Now, it was he's turn to blush.

Tohru, on the contrary, immediately transformed the image of the cat into Kyo. She turned around from the edge of her seat to find him arguing with Uo on the other side. The memories of that vivid night sky three weeks ago found her; the sight of his red gleaming eyes between the sparks of his lighter were genuine. At that moment, she was the only one he saw in his eyes and that sparkling moment made her feel special.

Also, at that moment, she decided not to avoid him any longer and to let their relationship developed naturally. Though, their day to day life became normal, but during the night, she couldn't help but wondered and thought of Kyo taunted her. She kept asking herself questions after questions. 'Is he still in love me? Has he stopped loving me? Is he with Kagura? Did I treat him so badly that he hated me now? Why can't I tell him that I care for him? Why can't I tell him that I want him? Why did I ask Shigure to kiss me? Can I love him? He is different, he's not Kyo, but if Kyo doesn't love me anymore, then maybe I could fall for someone else; someone like Shigure is nice. He's kind and gentle. He's always seems to know exactly what to say to calm and cheer me up. If I marry him, l guess living the rest of my life with a man like him isn't so bad, but why does it feel so wrong just to think about it? It's because… it's because… he is not… he is not … Kyo.' She continued to stare that the rowdy cat.

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By the time they arrived at the designated Hotel, it was in the evening; all the waiting, checking in luggages, making sure that everyone was accounted for took over half a day and the flying made up for the rest. Everyone had assigned rooms of four; Yuki and Kyo were in the same room while Tohru, Uo and Hana were together in another room.

"Oh, what a waste? An entire day gone, just like that… That's why I hate traveling." Uo said as she dropped her baggages on the floor and jumped onto her bed. "This leaves us only two days to play and enjoy ourselves. What should we do?"

"Well the beach here is nice, right?" Tohru asked.

"Yes, and we should do some shopping as well." Hana added.

"Yeah, we'll definitely do them, but there should be something else." Uo pondered.

"What else do you want to do?" Tohru asked.

"I don't know… something fun." Uo replied. "Well, enough with the talk, let's go to the bath house. I saw one in the hotel when we were checking in. We should all go together."

"That's sound good." Hana replied.

"Miya, would you like to join us?" Tohru asked the fourth person in the room.

"Nah, I rather sleep now. Thanks for asking." She replied.

The three friends grabbed their towels and headed to the bath. On the way, in front of the bath's entrance, they met the two Sohma boys walking out; Kyo and Tohru exchanged glances and their faces turned pink; Yuki and Hana did just the same.

"Okay, what's going on here? Why are you guys all red?" Uo asked, but no one answered, everyone just looked away to a corner shyly. She stood in the middle observing the four redden strawberries and speculated. "Alright then, if no one is talking, then can we at least bathe now?"

"Okay. Yes." Tohru replied first, then Hana; they both turned and headed straight for the bath.

"Good!" Uo pouted.

"Enjoy your bath." Yuki said as he walked away with Kyo.

Uo turned around and hissed. "Of course, we will, you ding head!"

"What's up with her?" Kyo asked.

"I don't know." Yuki replied. "Let's head back to our room, we don't want to worry Rin and Ken."

"Yeah" Kyo agreed, and then suddenly, "Hey, wait a minute… when have you started bossing me around? Don't tell me what to do, you damn rat!"

Yuki smiled and kept on walking.

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In the bath house, while Tohru and Hana minded their own business and bathe themselves, Uo decided to stir thing up a bit. "Okay, what is going on with you two?"

"What do you mean?" Hana asked.

"Don't give me that. You know exactly what I mean. You were blushing when you saw Yuki earlier."

"I was just tired from all that heat and traveling." She replied calmly and continued her bathing. 'Why did I exactly?' She asked herself as she lathered the shampoo into her hair.

Uo shifted her attention to Tohru, "And you, what is the deal with you and Orange-top? Don't tell me that you chose him over the Prince and what about Shigure? I thought that you decided to marry him."

"Well, I…" She started, yet hesitated. She didn't want to worry her friends with her trouble.

"Tohru, are we your best friends or aren't we?" Uo asked.

"Yes, of course you are."

"Then, you can always tell us what's on your mind. Share with us your dreams, your pain or just anything at all. We will listen." Hana said with her usually calm and flat voice.

"Yes, I know that… It's just… I don't know…" Tohru replied, still hesitant remained in her voice.

"It's Kyo, isn't it? You like him." Uo leered.

'How is it that everyone seems to know that Kyo is the key to my frustration?' She asked herself.

"If it's true that you like Kyo, then you should let your feeling out and let him know. After all, he would be a much better groom than that crazy writer." Hana said.

"So, do you like him or not?" Uo leaned forward, staring her blues eyes straight into Tohru's narrowed ones.

Feeling the pressure from her friends, she admitted, "Well, yes… I do like him a lot, but…"

"But, what?" Uo asked.

"It's complicated." Tohru replied, looking away.

Hana observed, considering the most logical factor of Tohru's relationship, "Does it has anything to do with the writer?" She asked.

Tohru shook her head. "No, it's not him."

Uo directly turned her attention to the next obvious person. "Then, is it the Prince?"

"No, it's not him, either."

Hana thought again, considering what other reason could be practical, "It's another woman." She declared.

Tohru didn't respond, but her rigid body gave her answer away.

"So, Orange-top has another woman, I cannot believe this! How and when did this happen? Does he like the other girl?" Uo asked.

"I don't know." Tohru replied.

"What?" Uo raised her voice. "Don't tell me that you didn't confront him?"

"No."

"Why not?" The blonde exclaimed.

"I don't know, maybe I'm just too afraid what his answer would be, so I just stayed away from the subject entirely."

"This is just like you. You keep everything to yourself until you have no other choices. Once you get push into a corner, that's when you let it all out. Tohru, this is not healthy. You should be true to yourself and don't hold back; the more you resist, the more tension it will build up and one day, you'll just explode." Hana explained.

"Look who's talking." Uo mocked. "You're doing just the same…"

"Who are you implying?

"You!" Uo pointed a finger at her friend. "This suck! All the nice looking guys are taken!"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'd noticed how you were when I asked Tohru earlier about the Prince. There is some chemistry building up between you and him and I just know it." Uo explained.

"No, it's nothing like that." Hana disagreed.

"Don't lie!"

"I'm not…" She looked away and lowered her voice, speaking to her feet, "…and maybe if I am, just a little bit… he'll never notice me."

"How would you know if you never try?" Uo made her point and sighed. "Oh! This is crazy! Let's finish up and go back. I need to do some planning."

"Planning?" The two unhappy faces asked.

Uo raised her brows, "I mean sleeping, yeah… sleeping!" A thought crossed her frisky head and she found the 'something fun' that she was looking for.

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The blazing sun was enjoying its rays; reaching out to everyone, sharing its warmth and marking its signature on every exposed skin. The white sandy beach did nothing less, finding its joy through thousand of sandals, rubbing its rough edges and tickled every foot that came in its path.

"It's beautiful! I've never seen a beach as blue as this one before." Tohru was admiring the sea and smelling the crisp and salty air of the beach.

"Yes, this is lovely." Hana agreed, lying on the beach chair in her one piece, plain black bathing suit.

"This is great." The other girl, Miya was also enjoying the sun in her pink, two pieces polka-dots bikinis.

Tohru continued to admire the beach, digging her feet into the sand and giggled herself from the tingling feeling that she received in return.

"We're not going to spend the entire day just bathing in the sun are we?" Uo asked, lying on her stomach. "This is boring, let's call some guys over." She spotted someone, "Here comes a hot stud."

"Good afternoon." Yuki greeted the girls.

"Hi, Yuki." Tohru replied.

"Yeah, hi." Uo replied.

Hana greeted him with a smile and continued her bath.

"I'm playing volleyball with the guys over there, would any of you like to join us?" He asked.

"That's a great idea!" Uo jumped from her seat. She was wearing a two piece bikinis, in a bright, red hot color. "Okay, let's go girls."

"No, I don't volleyball." Tohru denied.

"Yeah, sport isn't my thing, I get tire very easily." Hana said.

"That's the more reason why you must." She pulled her two friends, each by the hand. "Miya, you come too."

"Okay." The other girl replied.

"Alright then, Yuki… lead the way." He nodded in agreement and Uo dragged her friends along.

They came to the game where Kyo and his other two roommates were playing two against one. Kyo, of course was in an orange swim short and as tan as ever; he must the darkest guy in the group. In contrary, Yuki was the fairest of them and his purple short didn't help much at all. Rin was in blue and Ken in yellow; they're both average, ordinary boys, not much to say about them.

"Orange-top!" Uo greeted him as she approached the game.

Everyone stopped.

Kyo also stopped to admire Tohru's one-piece outfit. It was a white suit with blue diamond shape-like embroidery all over it. She exposed very little skin, yet he still found her very attractive.

She met his eyes and turned away shyly from embarrassment. 'Kyo, please don't look at me like that. Every time we meet eye to eye, it just makes me so nervous that I don't know what to say to you anymore… try to act naturally… act naturally…' She chanted to herself.

"Okay, so how should we divide the team? It looks like we have four boys and four girls." Uo observed. "In all fairness, we should split two in each team, two guys and two girls." She suggested and everyone agreed.

"Okay, let's play ball." Yuki initiated the first serve to Uo's team.

'How did I need up in Tohru's rear?' Kyo asked, staring at the back of the white swimsuit.

"Orange-top! Watch the ball!" Uo called to her teammate standing beside her. He caught it in time and hit it over to Rin on the other side. Rin caught the ball and passed it to Miya in front. She then slammed it over the net to girl in white. Tohru struggled with the ball and passed it back to her friend in red. Uo again passed it along crosswise to Ken in yellow. While the other team played passing the ball, Yuki stood and observed the girl in black.

The game didn't last for long, less then half an hour when Hana collapsed on her knees. Yuki quickly came to held her up. "What's wrong?" He asked.

"I'm sorry, I can't do this anymore." She replied, breathing heavily. "Please continue without me." She broke away and found herself some shade under the umbrella above her chair.

Tohru ran over, "Are you sure that you're alright?"

"Yes. I just needed some rest and I'll be fine." Hana replied, smiling. "Go play. Don't stop in my account."

They continued playing for a little longer. The game probably lasted an hour in total, then Yuki signaled off and went to rest by Hana. "That sun is brutal." Yuki said as he wiped off his sweat from his forehead; drops of liquid, drip by drip sliding down, running along the side of his face as he breathed.

Hana noticed his bare chest; it was pale with a touch of redness, moving in and out as he gasped for air. She had never been with the Prince like this before and even from his side, he was as fine-looking as ever.

"Are you feeling better now?" He asked while turning his head over, his purpled hair flew into mid-air and tiny droplet of clear elements sparkled as he met her eyes. He could feel his heart race as he continued to look at her, admiring her rosy cheeks and mysterious dark amethyst eyes. "Uh…" He opened his lips, hands a bit shaky as he started, but whatever he wanted to say was interrupted when Uo came and took a seat right in the middle.

"Man! That was a good game." Uo breathed as she sat down. Miya, Rin, Ken were right behind her. Kyo grabbed the volleyball and Tohru accompanied him walking back to the others. As they approached, Uo shouted, "Orange-top! I'm thirsty! Go and get me a drink!" She demanded.

He threw the ball right at her. "You go and get it yourself!"

She jumped at him, landing her red buttock right on his bare abs. "That's not how it works! You do not make the ladies go and get the drink! It's the guy's job!"

He looked up and there two bouncy red triangles turned him looking away. Tohru felt disturbed as she watched Uo sitting on top of Kyo and instantly, she volunteered. "I'll go and get everyone something to drink."

"No! You stay here and let him go." Uo argued.

"But, I want to." Tohru insisted. "So… you can get off of him now." She said timidly.

Uo looked at Tohru, then at Kyo, then back at Tohru; both of them looked uncomfortable. "Okay, if that's what you really want to do." Uo said and her friend nodded. She stood up and pointed a finger at the boy on the sand. "You, go with her."

"Why you?" Kyo jumped back up and formed a fist.

"Please, Kyo…" Tohru placed her hand on his arm gently. It sent him a little shockwave. It was the first time in a while that she touched him. He agreed warmly and they both left together.

Uo sat back down, looking at the couple who just left to buy drinks and snickered to herself, 'Two down and two to go.' Then, she noticed that she was sitting in between the other pair. "Okay!" She suddenly shouted. "Let's go swimming!"

"What?" Everyone exclaimed at the same time.

"But, we just finished playing ball." Miya whined.

"Yeah, I'm still tired." Rin agreed.

"We need some refreshment before doing anything else. Let's wait for the drink." Ken suggested.

"NO! You can have some sea water. After all, this is an expensive trip and we won't have many chances to have fun after this, so let enjoy it now." Uo explained.

"But!" All said at the same time.

"NO MORE BUTS!" She yelled and fire ignited in the background.

"OK! We'll go." They ran off to stay away from her rage.

"You too!" She turned around and looked at Yuk and Hana. "Get off your butts and go swimming!"

"But." Hana tried to argue.

"Didn't you hear what I've just said?"

"I can't swim."

"You can still play in the water." Uo wouldn't let Hana talked her way out. She pulled her friend by the hand and Yuki paced behind. Once they reach the sandy part where the tip of each wave reached and soaked the sand beneath; she immediately pushed Hana into the water.

"It's cold!" Hana described.

"Not after you splash for a few times." She started splashing water onto Hana; raindrops of water fell onto her friend while the purple-eyed boy stood still and watched the two friends playing and exchanging laughter's of joy.

Yuki continued to admire the sight of two young girls on the beach and found a little excitement for himself. For some unexplainable reason, he had his eyes fixed on one person in particular; the one with long, shining black hair. Her hair pulled straight down from the weight of the water, it meshed and blended into her swimsuit as her outfit hugged tighter to her skin. She arched back, running her fingers into her hair to pull them in place. The picture of her standing in the clearest and bluest ocean glowed as she held onto her black hair. "She's beautiful." His thought slipped through his lips.

"Who's beautiful?" Tohru asked.

"O… Hi, Tohru." He greeted her.

She observed his blushing. It took her a few seconds for it to sink in and softly she said, "I'm glad that you've found someone."

"What?" He responded.

She ran off to play with her friends.

"What's that about?" He asked again.

"Girls… They're so hard to understand." Kyo said from behind.

"Yeah." Yuki agreed as he saw Tohru cheerfully splashing the sea water. "Tohru looks happy, so did you two patch up things?" He asked.

"No, every time I tried to bring up the subject, she'll just find a way to avoid it. I don't understand her…" He paused, his heart skipped a beat as he looked at Tohru, 'It hurt less when you just avoided me… why bother talked to me now, and won't give me a straight answer? Do I mean that little to you?'

"Hey! Are you okay?" Yuki saw the cat's frozen stiff, staring at Tohru.

"Yeah…want a drink?" Kyo asked.

"Sure." Yuki replied and the cat grabbed a can of cold carbonated, flavored water from the bag hanging from his hand. "Thanks."

"Yuki! Kyo! Come! Play with us!" Uo waved her hands, inviting the boys over.

Kyo dropped the bag, pretended that nothing's wrong. He and Yuki came running into the water, kicking and moving in the icy cold water, enjoying each wave as they cooled off the heat from their burning skin.

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The following day was gone just like that. It passed by quickly as the girls enjoyed their shopping spree in town. Night fell and everyone was back in their room at the hotel. Everyone was to pack and get ready for the flight home tomorrow morning.

Uo had planned a get together for everyone in her class. It was a total night out before they leave and go back home. The time for the gathering was 11pm, after the other classes and the homeroom teachers were asleep. Uo found a vacant beach house about half a mile away from the Hotel, and everyone was to sneak out and meet there. She dragged her two friends who, of course, didn't want to go. Miya came along willingly, so that she wouldn't also be dragged. Everyone arrived at the designated place, and per usually some of them drank, some danced and some just sit around having a good time.

"Okay, people! Now it's time for the grand finale." Uo said as she rose up two hats of crumble papers in each hand. "Okay, I think excluding me, there is an even number of girls and guys in this house tonight, so listen up people. Before we call it a night, there is one last thing that I want to do, I want to have some fun and create some memories. This may be the last time we all get together to do something like this, so here I proposed a making out game!"

"Huh? What? No way! Yah!" Difference voices roused from the crowd.

"Everyone must participate or it won't work! And if you dare to back out, I'll hunt you down." She gave everyone a sharp glared to make sure that they all got her drift. "If you hadn't notice yet, then I'll tell you now. See all the number labeled on those doors in the hallway. Each door has a unique number. Here is how the game works, each female student is to draw a number from the first hat and go to the door with the same number labeled on it. She is to wait inside the room until her destine man comes in. The male will do the same, draw a number from the second hat and go to the room to find his destine woman. Whether or not the two people, who ended up with the same numbered room decided to make out or not is their choice, but everyone must draw the raffle. You may never know… the person you'll pick tonight may turn out to be your soul mate. Okay, enough said. Tohru you're up first."

"I don't like this." She replied as she looked at Kyo.

"Like I said, you don't have to kiss the guy if you don't want to." Uo replied. Her friend sighed and drew a number. "Hana, it's your turn." She called. Knowing Uo, Hana couldn't talk herself out of it, so she also drew a number. When all the girls were done, it was the guys turn.

Yuki came up first, willingly examined the pieces of mashed up paper, he couldn't tell the difference whatsoever, so he sighed. "Here goes nothing." He picked up a ball of paper.

Kyo came up next; he could care less about the stupid game, "Just give me one." He said to Uo.

She sneered back at him, "No, you need to test the fate. I know that you want Tohru, so here pick her out from hat." She shook the hat and all the pieces scrambled together. "Agh! Fine!" He quickly snatched a piece.

"Okay, men go to your women! I'll be outside guarding for at least half an hour, so before that time comes, don't you even think that you can leave your woman alone." At that, she sent everyone down the hallway, each young man stood in front of his door as Uo shut down all the lights.

(Smile: Okay, this is a vacant house, so where did the lights come from? Agh, who cares? The owner must be so rich that they never shut off the electricity bill on the place.)

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Yuki turned the knob of his door and entered. He closed his door gently and leaned against it. He sighed as he thought, 'Why did I even participate?' A vision of a black hair and violet eyes girl crossed his mind.

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At the same time, Kyo also entered his room, shut it closed and leaned his head against the lifeless wood door. He stood silently and didn't even bother to approach the girl in the room. He cursed himself, 'I'm not a fool. There is no way that Tohru is in this room. I was born in agony, to bear the Sohma's curse, to be the black sleep of the family, and to be rejected. I must have the worstest fate ever, my family rejected me because I was the cat, the one animal that the zodiac banded from history. She is the only one that opened up to me, not afraid of the creature I'd become; she welcomed me every time and said the sweetest thing. I missed her goofy smile. Is there no hope for me? I can't take this any longer. I rather end it now and let her go on with her live and maybe I can forget and move on, too.'

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While Yuki stood soundlessly, a voice spoke up. "Yuki?" She asked. He recognized that voice; he opened up his eyes, trying to adjust his vision to the dim room. He didn't say a word, yet he stepped forward to find out if his assumption was correct.

"Don't come closer…" She said with flat, yet smooth voice. She answered him; she confirmed her identity with her words.

"Why?" He asked, as the darkness in the room faded and there he saw her skin emerged, stood out in the night. 'What is this strange feeling I'm having right now?' He felt his heart race once again, looking at her. 'Why her? Why Ms. Hanajima?' He walked up closer to her.

"I'm not the one that you want."

Yuki stared into her violet and shimmering eyes. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that you like Tohru, so we don't have to do you know what… We could just stay in here for a while until the night is over or until we can leave and go back to the hotel." She explained as she found the window curtains and split them opened from the middle. "The moon is beautiful tonight, don't you think?" The moon light found its way in and lit up the room, highlighting the girl beneath it, her dark hair shined, her face glowed and her lips glittered.

"Yes, it is beautiful, but there is something else tonight that I found more beautiful." He said as he walked up and caressed her face.

"What's this?" She asked, confused by his touch.

"I admit that this is a bit strange, but Tohru isn't the one that I've been thinking about."

"But… I don't understand."

"Neither do I."

"What about Tohru?"

"She has Kyo."

"Yes, I could sense that Kyo loves her a lot and maybe even more than she knows it."

He gently lifted her chin up and spoke, "You know what? I've been having this strange feeling inside, it's becoming stronger as I look at you. I want to find out what it is."

'He looks so sincerely, could really be interested in me?' Her cheeks turned rosy again as she stared into his eyes. "But… you're the Prince. I mean…"

"What does it matter? I'd never imagine that you would take such title in consideration."

"I don't. I don't know why I'm feeling so insecure right now. This is not me… I'm usually not like this."

"You're a mysterious one, but that reason why I found you're so intriguing. I want to learn more about you, things that I've never noticed before."

"Yuki…"

"Hanajima…"

"You can call me Saki."

"Saki…" His lips parted as he observed her flushing. "Shall we?"

"I've never done this before." She said softly, her heart race, pounding faster as he leaned forward.

"Then, let me be your first."

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In the other room, Kyo was still fighting his thought; he banged his head against the door.

"Excuse me." The other person in the room spoke up, "I understand completely if you don't want to do this because I don't want to do it either."

He cursed his bad luck no more, "Tohru?"

"Kyo?" Surprised, yet she was relieved to hear his voice.

He quickly found her. "I can't believe that it's you."

"Me either." She breathed and smiled, but her contentment didn't last long.

"Tohru… I was just thinking…" He walked away to find the windows. He pulled up the curtains and looked at the full moon above him as he filled his lungs. "I cannot wait anymore." He turned back to look at her. "I need to know, tonight."

She chuckled nervously, "What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean and don't try to change the subject." Again, he turned away from her to find the darkness outside. "I'm tired of waiting. You may think that I'm a courage, that I'm just running away, but I'm only human; a merely human in flesh and blood. This human is dieing, my essence, my core is unstable. There is a deep wound inside of me, something that I cannot see, but it hurts, it hurts so much that I cannot bear it anymore." He shut his eyes tightly together, so that tears cannot escape.

"This doesn't sound like you." She said feeling very troubled from the tone of his depressing voice and her own racing heart.

He spoke to the window with a pinch of bitterness. "I haven't been myself for a while now, since that very day that you've forgot me. If I were to compare myself to a cat; a cat itself has nine lives and I could strongly say that eight of my nine lives are dead now. My first life died when we first kiss, your tears stole it away. My second deceased when you agreed to marry that damn dog, Shigure. My third one ran away along with my nuisance when I left home. My fourth one disappeared with you when you ran away and lost your faith in me. My fifth one ended that moment you fainted in my arms after the car accident. My sixth one suffocated when I learned that you've lost your memories. My seventh one was shoved away and buried when you deny me of my love. My confession to you at the cemetery was true, but you didn't even consider it. Instead, you shattered my hope and said that nothing happened. Finally, my eighth one; you just killed it earlier with your question, pretending that you don't know what I want." He let out a quiet sighed then walked back to her. "Each live disappears from me before I knew it. They were painful, but I was able to bear them." He paused and ran his finger along the shape of her face. "But, do you know what hurt me the most?"

"No." She managed an answer after his fingers left her skin.

"It's being able to see the one that I love so much in front of me, but knowing that she doesn't belong to me. Your ignoring me didn't hurt as much as you were pretending to be friendly and giving me fake affection and hope. Tohru, I would die a hundred times for just for you. If I were to have that many lives, then I'll die for you anytime in return all I ask is for your love."

"I didn't know that you've been through so much because of me." She quickly covered up her mouth as bitterness started to fill her head, 'How could he love me so much? I didn't know that I've put him in so much pain, but yet he held on, waiting for me, for me to return his feelings. Why didn't I accept his feelings? Was it Kagura? Was it Shigure? Was it because of my missing memories? Do anything of this matter anymore?'

"Regarding my cat's lives, I only have one live left, but its spirit is weak and unstable. Before, I let it die completely, I must know…" He took her arms, "Tohru, please tell me how you feel about me? Why are you avoiding me? Did I do something wrong? Is it because you cannot remember me? Why can't you just accept me? Tell me why!"

"I'm so-o sorry..." She cried, drops of clear bubbles lined up along her liners as they fused together and ran down to her face from the end of her blue eyes. "I'm sorry." She continued to cry, unable to stop.

"Is that all you have to say…" He held on to a side of her face. She couldn't say anything else, all she could do right now was sobbing. He pulled his hand away and utterly feeling pathetic. "I'm such a fool. I should have accepted it sooner and just left you alone then I would have saved you from all these tears. I'm such a loser pleading like I am now. Maybe I should save the last bit of my dignity; the remaining of my ninth life and disappear from your live forever."

"No! You can't you promise!" She cried out. 'Where did that came from?' She immediately thought.

Both stood in silent, staring at each other.

"So, do you remember my promise?" He held up this hand again, but hesitated to touch her, afraid that it was too good to be true.

"I…" She closed her eyes, thought hard. "I'm sorry, but I can't remember." She said softly. "I could feel that something is there, but I can't reach it."

Just like he thought, disappointed as he dropped his hand back down. "I had promised you that I will never to leave you again and that is why I stayed around, hoping that time will help you remember. Yet, all my waiting and efforts had died and now I think that I cannot keep that promise any longer." He looked away, turned his head to the side and thought hard, "I think that it's time to end this."

"What you do mean by that?"

"It's time for me to say goodbye."

"No."

"Goodbye…" He whispered and slowly walked toward the door.

"No. NO. You can't!" She moved around as fast as she could and pulled onto the back of his shirt.

"Why should I stay? You don't remember." He managed with a dried voice facing his back to her.

She leaned against his back and spoke to his shirt. "It doesn't matter; I don't need to remember…"

"Why?" He asked again.

"Because…" She wrapped her arms around him. "…because, I need you." She cried softly to his shoulder blade, "I need you to be with me, to hold me in your arms and to say that… that you love me once more."

"I don't understand."

"I know that I don't remember, but it doesn't matter anymore because I love you, with or without them, I still love you." He couldn't believe what he had just heard. He dropped his head to let it sink in. She held onto him tighter gripping onto the front of his shirt. She didn't want to let him go; she couldn't bear the thought of him leaving her. She clung onto his closer and she said again, "…because, I love you…" The phrase echoed in his mind three times, but he still couldn't believe it. He had been waiting for it for so long, that now it didn't seem real anymore. He didn't respond to her, so she called to him again. "Kyo… I love you."

"Tohru." He woke up and immediately embraced her. He took a good look at her. She looked frightening. "I've been waiting for this moment for so long." He whispered into her ears, inhaled deeply and exhaled all his frustration. He was relieved. He was saved. He released his arms and moved them down to find her hands. He locked his webs with hers and walked her slowly, hand in hand to the bed inside the room. He sat his back against the headboard and pulled her up with him, holding her in his arms.

She sat burying her head under his chin as she listened to his heartbeat. It was playing a very soothing rhythm. She closed her eyes to enjoy her moments allowing herself to breathe the night air of fulfillment. "I've been longing for this too. I wanted to be in your arms just like this."

"Then, why didn't you tell me sooner?"

She replied softly, "I was scared. My mind was stuck between you and Shigure. I'm engaged and I was developing feelings for you and not him. I felt disgusted and shameful of myself for being that way, so I decided to stay away from you. It wasn't easy to avoid you because every time I saw you the more mixed feelings I got and the more I wanted you. Then the night of the barbeque…" She paused per the image of Kagura came to mind.

"What?"

"I… I saw you kissing Kagura." She murmured.

"You did?" He asked calmly and then stared at the ceiling and thought, 'Kagura… she was lonely and sad too.' He remembered the kiss that he gave her. It was a quick and gentle one, nothing that could have been compared to the ones that he had with Tohru. Yet, that one kiss made her so happy; he felt a little guilt formed inside, but there was nothing that he could do. He couldn't lie to her or to himself.

She heaved a little moan and broke Kyo's train of thoughts. "Yes, and it was… very painful to watch."

He could hear the tartness from her voice as he inhaled and looked back down. "This time I did kiss her." He admitted. "I'm sorry."

"Why?" She cried looking at him for an answer. "Why did you do it? Do you like her?"

"No. It was a goodbye kiss." He assured the puzzled girl with a gentle smile and braced his fingers underneath the lining of her lower lip. "I promised never to do that again."

She looked away for a while. "When I saw you kissing her like that, something inside of me broke and I ran back to the house quickly to soak my tears." She drew away from him and squeezed her arms tightly. "After how I avoided you, I thought that you found yourself someone else. At that time, I didn't know what to think anymore then Shigure came into the bedroom and eased my pain. He was so kind and gentle to me, that I… that I thought I was able to forget you and love him instead." She squeezed harder. "I kissed him."

Kyo sat there without any expression of pain or hatred. He just stood there and observed her. He could see that she was feeling repentant as she her body shook in her arms. He wasn't mad at her instead he felt that it was his fault for putting her through it. He raised his hand to find her silky hair that was covering half of her face. He pulled them back behind her ear and whispered into it. "Tohru, I love you."

She turned back to looked at him, pleading for forgiveness.

"You didn't do anything wrong." He continued.

"But, I kissed him." She argued.

"Did it mean anything?" He asked calmly.

She dropped her head back down. "It was different." She could remember how gentle Shigure held her in his arms and slowly he pulled her into an embrace. He kissed her slowly as though he was afraid to break her. After he broke away, she was flustered, but she didn't feel any desire to continue. The kiss wasn't what she expected, but it helped her reduced all the stress that she held inside at that moment. "His kiss helped me felt calm and peaceful." She continued. "I felt that if I tried very hard, then I could live the rest of my life with a man like him." She tilted her head back up, "Then, when I met your eyes in between the sparks under that colorful night, I was confused again. I felt that there was still hope for us, but I was too scared to confront it. I was afraid that you no longer wanted me and that you had fallen for Kagura instead."

He ran his fingers carefully on the soft texture of her facial skin. Moving his touch from underneath her eyes next to her nose bridge to her cheek bone and down along the frame of her face. "I felt the same." He said and continued to trace down to her chin and lifted it. "That moment gave me hope, therefore I tried to approach with every chance I've got, but you always found a way to change the subject and now I know why."

"Kyo…" Feeling her heart raced, she closed her eyes.

He gently placed his lips on hers and drew back slowly. It was just a simple kiss, a quick brace on the flesh, but both knew that it meant so much more. It was a kiss of comprehension, acknowledgement and relief.

"There is only one person for me and she is right here with me now." He confirmed his kiss and bound her into his arms. "I want you to promise that you'll never forget me again, no matter what happens."

"I will never forget…" She started and her heart raced. It escalated an abnormal beat that she had never experienced before. She felt a sudden rush of pressure flooded throughout her body as she continued. "…no matter what happens… I promise." A sharp acute pain instantly ran through her head as she held tighter to Kyo's body.

"What's wrong?" He asked in response to her sudden grasp.

"My head hurts."

"It's late, maybe you need some rest. Do you want to go back to the Hotel?"

"No. I want to stay here. Can you hold onto me for the rest of the night?"

How could he refuse her? Feeling pleased, he took another long and deep breath. Then he pulled up a blanket to cover her. "I'd love to." All the weight on his chest had lifted and flew away as he held onto her warm body. He gave her another kiss on the forehead. "Good night." He said right after the kiss.

She was also pleased as she snuggled in closer and repeated, "Good night."

They nestled and slowly drifted away.

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**Back Stage Discussion:**

Smile: Okay, another long chapter, but don't expect it as long in the next chapter.

Shigure: What's up with all the new characters?

Smile: Do you mean Miya, Rin and Ken?

Shigure: Yeah, where did they come from?

Smile: I just kinda made them up to fill in the blanks. You can just forget about them. I don't think that I'll mention them again.

Ayame: That's so cruel! It's just like how you treated me, how you didn't want to write more about me.

Smile: Oh, just be quiet.

Ayame: Shigure!

Shigure: What about the school, the teacher or the students in the other classes? You didn't write much about them?

Smile: Who cares about them? I certainly don't. There are only two characters that I really care about and the rest are just side dishes.

Shigure: So, we're just a side dish, an optional thing that you can play or not play whenever you want.

Smile: That is correct.

Shigure: You are mean!

Yuki: That's how every story works; there are main and supporting characters and everyone come together to make the plot flow.

Smile: See Yuki understand how it works.

Yuki: So, what's up with Hana? Why did you pair me with her instead of Kagura?

Smile: Well, at first I thought of pairing you with Kagura, but I think that you look better with Saki.

Yuki: Well… she is pretty.

Smile: See, you agree, but don't expect anymore update on the development of your relationship with her. All I wanted to do was to introduce the two of you getting together.

Yuki: I see, I guess that I'm also just another side dish.

Shigure: So you've given up on Tohru and go for her friend instead. What a playboy?

Yuki: You have the nerve to talk! You two timer!

Shigure: Two timing? Who?

Yuki: You! You idiot!

Shigure: I'm bisexual, so doesn't that means that I need a female lover and also a male lover?

Yuki: But, not at the same time! You can only have one person in your life at a time.

Shigure: So, I could have Tohru in the morning and Ayame at night?

Yuki: No that's not what I mean!

Shigure: Then what did you mean?

Yuki: O… forget it.

Smile: Oh, Shigure… you're so funny.

Shigure: I am?

Smile: Yes, you are.


	18. Confrontation

**Chapter 18 – Confrontation**

Tohru had a restless night. Although, her body was sleeping but her head was operating over its normal capacity. Images were flashing and flooding into her mind through a channel that opened up when she made her promise. They were like puzzle pieces that were trying to find their places. As her promise repeated itself, 'I will never forget no matter what happens, I promise. I will never forget… I promise', each piece struggled, yet found it's fit.

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Morning came. The early heat humidified the room as Kyo woke up slowly trying to open his eyes. He found his throat sore and dried as he breathed in the muggy air. The warm weather had caused him to perspire and damped his entire body. He felt his body ached as he pulled his hand up to wipe off the sweat from his forehead. This was when he noticed that Tohru was sleeping on top of him. All of a sudden, his eyes opened up to their fullest width; he remembered everything from last night. He relaxed his body and wrapped his arms around her. He took in another breath and this time happiness filled up his lungs.

Tohru was in a deep sleep. This was strange of her, but Kyo recalled that she mentioned her head hurt last night, so he remained still and continued to enjoy his moment alone with her. He had longed for this moment for so long now that no matter how long he stayed with her, it never seemed to be enough.

After about a half an hour, he noticed that Tohru was gripping tightly to his shirt. Her head was moving left and right in the slightly motion. He felt in his gut that something was wrong. He tried to wake her up by shaking her shoulders a little, but she didn't respond. "Tohru." He called to her, but still she didn't respond. "TOHRU!" He cried out and at that instant she let out a moan. "You're okay." He said with relief. "For a minute there, I thought that you won't wake up."

"Kyo?" She slowly opened up her eyes, lifted her body up and crawled up to look at him. "It's really you! It's not a dream." She was only inches away from him, blinking her blues eyes hastily to keep them open. He stared at her morning face, her sweaty hair and her position over him; she looked appealing, good enough to eat. He wanted to taste her and to rub off all the salty beads of residue from her face. Before he was able to make his attempt, she dropped her weight down. "Kyo, I'm so glad." She rubbed her head against his limp and sighed.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"I had a…" She paused feeling a little lightheaded. Then after a few breaths she continued, "I had a dream last night."

"About what?" Concern seeped in his tone.

"I dreamt that you were gone."

"But, I'm here with you."

"Yes, that's why I'm so glad." She stuttered. After another long pause, she continued, "The dream… it felt real."

"How?"

"I don't know, but I could remember everything that was portrayed in my dream. I saw Shigure, I saw Yuki and I saw you. One after the other… uh…" She blushed.

"What?"

She continued shyly, "…kissed me and told me that he loved me. Shigure took my first kiss. Yuki saw me naked in the bathroom, so I tried to cover up, but instead I fell onto him. Our skins were touching and our lips were too. Then, the next thing I saw was you. You were angry. You busted your fist and left home. You were gone, gone for a long time." She muttered.

This triggered Kyo's memories and brought him back to that day; the day that he busted his knuckles and left home because Tohru was hiding something from him. Now it all made sense to him. 'She was with that damn rat that morning and they were…' Instead of getting upset, he caught what's happening to Tohru. 'Wait a minute, what is she talking about? So, does this mean that she remembers?' And so, he tested his reflex and asked her, "So, why didn't you tell me what happened that morning with Yuki? Why did you have to hide it from me?"

Without any effort, she responded, "Because, I was afraid that you'll get mad and dislike me. Although, it was just an accident, I was worried that you'll think ill of me for being in that situation with Yuki. I was scared to find out how you'll react if I had told you."

"Well… you just did."

"Huh?" This caught her by surprise.

"It looks like your memories are coming back to you."

"Are they? How?"

"I don't know exactly how, but from what you just told me." He said as he released his arms and rolled her over on the bed. She lied flat on her back while he was on his hands and knees. "It appeared to be exactly what happened in the past two months."

"Really?"

"Yeah, maybe they're coming back to you in a form of a dream." He smiled. "Do you recall anything else that happened?"

She closed her eyes and thought hard, "You… we were together that night; the night that you came back to me in my bedroom." She reached out her hand to touch his face and traced along his eyes. The pair of eyes that she remembered from that night was different. Back then, they were sad and disoriented. Now they were clear and sharp. She smiled, yet paused quickly as she remembered someone else, "and …"

"What? Tell me."

"Kagura." She continued. "I remember now, how desperate she needed you."

"It's all in the past now. I'm glad that you remember. The past two months for me felt more like years, time passed so slow and so many things had happened in just a little period of time."

"Yes." She agreed pleasantly. "I remember. I remember… and I'll never get again." She said happily and tears of joy escaped from her eyes.

"This is wonderful." He shifted him mass down beside her. After a long pause, lying beside his jewel of joy and blinking at the white and flat ceiling above him; he felt that he had also forgotten something. "Tohru."

"Yes."

"I think we forgot something."

"We did?"

"Oh, shit!" He jumped up. "The plane!"

"Oh no!" She sat up. "We should be back at the hotel!"

"Come, let's go… together." He gave her his hand and they ran back to the hotel as fast as they could.

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Back at the hotel, Uo and Hana were waiting for their missing roommate.

"Where is Tohru?" Uo asked Hana.

"I suppose she hasn't got back from last night."

"That's obvious. What do you think she and Kyo had been doing all night?"

"If I know Tohru, then she wouldn't be doing anything that went out of line."

"Darn it! Then that would ruin all my plans."

"Plans?" Hana observed. "I should've had known that you were behind it."

"You've got me." Uo snickered.

"So, you had some trick to the raffle, didn't you? That's why Kyo ended up with Tohru and Yuki…" The thought of Yuki made her cheeks slightly flushed.

"That's right! I'm sick of seeing you guys blushing all the time and no action, so I decided to help everyone moves in a step closer."

Hana didn't respond, yet returned a little smile.

"If she is not back in five minutes, then I'll have to go and get her. We can't leave without our precious Tohru."

"No, we can never."

Counting down: five minutes, four minutes, three minutes, two minutes, one minute and zit.

"Okay! That's it! I'm going to look for her." Uo opened the door and surprisingly when she stepped out; she found Kyo and Tohru running toward her, hand in hand. They stopped right in front of her.

"Thank goodness. We're made it in time." Tohru said through her breathing.

"Yeah." Kyo agreed.

"Well, well, look at the two love birds." Uo smirked while looking at their hands tied together.

Kyo quickly released his webs. "I have to go and get my things. I'll see you later." He said to Tohru.

"Okay." She replied softly.

He smiled dreamingly for a second and ran off to his room. Uo and Tohru watched him ran and disappeared into the corner. They went back inside their room.

"Hey! Like magic, Tohru is back." Uo announced.

"That was quick." Hana said without any surprise in her tone.

Tohru got out her half packed duffle bag from last night and stuffed it with the rest of her belongings.

"So… are you going to tell us what happened?" Uo started asking Tohru.

"Hmm…"

"Come on! Give me the dish."

"The dish?"

"I mean… tell me what happened between you and Orange-top. You've been out with him for the entire night, so did anything juicy occurred?"

"Juicy?"

"Oh, do I have to spell it out? What I'm asking is did you make out? Kiss? Made love? Things like that…"

"Hmm…" She hesitated, "We did a lot of talking…"

"That's it!"

"We kissed once on the lips."

"That's it!"

She blushed. "And we slept on the same bed."

"Oh, my god! What a waste? How could that stupid jerk be so… so… stupid? He wasted all my effort!"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, forget it!"

"Uo…?"

"Yeah. Is there something else?"

"I wanted to thank you."

"For what?"

"For the game last night, it helped me resolved my problem with Kyo."

"I'd figured as much when I saw you and Orange-top holding hands earlier."

"Yeah…" She blushed. "And I decided that Kyo is the only man for me."

"That's great! I'm happy for you."

"Yes, me too." Hana agreed and all three of them happily smiled.

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The flight home was interesting. This time everyone was on the same section of the plane. Kyo was stuck in the middle with Uo by the window and Yuki at the edge. The row before them, Hana was in the middle with Miya by the window and Tohru at the edge.

"Why the hell am I stuck with you again?" Kyo asked angrily.

"I guess it's because I'm the only one here that can tame a wild animal like you." Uo replied and broke out laughing.

"And you too!" He snarled at Yuki, who appeared to be deep in thoughts and didn't respond. "You damned rat! Speak to me when I talk to you!" He was about to smack Yuki on the head, but Yuki douched it and leaned forward to the side.

"Tohru?" He asked.

"Yes." She turned around.

"Do you mind exchanging seats?"

"No, but why?" She twitched her brows.

"Just because…" He smiled.

"Okay." She agreed yet, didn't notice why until she saw Hana blushing just right before she left her seat.

As they were about to switch seats, Kyo asked, "What's this?"

"I think this will keep you quiet the rest of the way home." Yuki replied as he took a seat beside his beauty from last night.

Tohru also took a seat by her love. "I like this arrangement, too. Don't you, Kyo?" A pair of clear blue eyes talked to him.

"Yeah." He said warily as he locked their fingers together.

Meanwhile, Yuki and Hana sat still and kept to themselves. Each could feel their own heart racing, but didn't know what to say or do after last night.

Uo decided to ease things a little, so she popped out of her seat and addressed the two pairs of purple eyes. "So, tell me something. Did you switch seat because you wanted to make room for Orange-top and Tohru or was it for something more personal?" The two turned in response to her question, yet caught each other's eyes instead. Redness replaced their silence. "Okay, I could see that the two of you are hot for each other, so could you skip the shyness and hold hands, kiss or at least talk already."

"What?" Kyo jumped up of his seat. "No, kidding?" He looked at Yuki's crimson face. "Him and the electric girl?"

"NOooo, when did this happen?" Miya exclaimed from her seat.

"Last night." Uo replied.

"I would appreciate it that you guys keep it down." Yuki said calmly.

Tohru stood up and entered the conversation. Now that her memories were back, she felt a bit resentful for not returning Yuki's feeling. "Yuki. Hana." She took turn and looked at one after the other. "If you truly like each other, then we'll be rooting for both of you. Like you said, Hana… it's not healthy to hide away your feelings…" She paused for a second and thought of all the agony that she went through with Kyo. He adjusted himself and rubbed his hand behind her back. She looked back at him and once again relief filled her heart. "If there is any way that we could help, then please let us know."

"Oh, this is nut! Let settle this now." Uo demanded. "Yuki… what's wrong? Don't you like her?"

He admired Hana's rosy cheeks. "I… I do. I'm just waiting for her to give me an answer." He remembered their kiss from last night. It delivered him an energy wave from the moment that he touched her soft lips. As they continued to deepen the kiss; the current traveled down to his pumping heart and slowly spread into every cell of his body. By the time, they were done; they ended in each other arms. Hana rested her head against him and hadn't spoken a word since then. He didn't know if she was interested or was bothered by it.

"Hana… what's your response?"

With everyone's eyes on her, she shyly replied, "I gave you my answer last night."

"You did?" Confusion seeped through his voice.

"Yes… my answer… Saki… you can call me Saki."

"That's it then! I guess the Prince can be dense sometimes when it comes to girl. Couldn't you tell that she is interest in you too? She wouldn't let just anyone call her by her first name. You're a lucky guy!" She patted him on the shoulder and seated herself down.

Kyo and Tohru exchanged bright glances and also sat down. Tohru was very delighted as she whispered into his ear, "I'm so happy."

"I know." He replied and wrapped an arm around her slender neck and on her shoulder.

Yuki continued to admire Hana as he wondered, 'There are so many things about her that remain mysterious like how she expresses her approval and how she is able to sense other people feelings, but hesitate at her own.' He smiled gracefully and said her name. "Saki…" She returned a small smile as he continued, "I want to learn more about you. Everything."

She reached out her hand for his, fingers intertwined as she rested her head onto his shoulder. "If you're serious…" She squeezed them tighter. "Then… call me sometimes."

"I am..." He leaned his head against her. "…and I will…"

The rest of the flight was quiet.

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They arrived home safely that Sunday evening.

"We're home!" They announced.

"Well, well… home already, that's great! Tohru dear, I need to talk to you." Shigure replied, walking toward his young cousins and to be bride.

Kyo stepped in, standing right in the between Shigure and Tohru. "Damn it! We've just got home! The least you can do is wait for us to settle down."

"Oh, that's right. Okay, put your things away." He said as he tucked both of his hands into the sleeves of his kimono. "And, remember to get ready in 30 minutes, because I'm taking everyone out to dinner."

"Dinner?" Yuki asked. "What's the occasion?"

"Nothing… It just that you guys just got home, so I don't want Tohru to get back into the kitchen just yet. She deserves a treat."

"No, please don't. I can cook right after I put my bags away." She replied.

"No, I insist…" He smiled stunningly.

"Okay, already! You're going out to dinner." Kyo interrupted. "Tohru lets go up stairs. I'll help you with these." Kyo took her bags and carried them for her. He dropped them by the windowsill next to her dresser.

"Kyo?" She asked, standing beside her bed.

"Yeah." He turned.

She sat down on the edge of her bed. "I want to tell Shigure about us..." she said softly, "…but, I don't want to hurt his feelings."

He walked back to her, still standing as he wrapped his arms around her, "I know…" he sighed, "…let me talk to him." He suggested.

"No." She argued, "It should be me. I should break the news to him." She clung on closer. "He did said once that he doesn't mind if I choose you instead of him, so I should tell him… maybe later at dinner."

"That's a good idea."

"I cannot believe it."

"Believe what?"

"Only a few more days and high school is over and I'll be married in exactly one week from now."

"Yeah… time can sometimes be dreadfully slow, yet other times, it goes by so quickly that it's hard to believe."

"Kyo…" She broke away to look at him. "I'm so glad that I've found you."

"Me, too." He leaned forward looking into her eyes. He declined her slowly onto the bed and followed her lips down as they meshed together.

"Kyo…" She moaned in their kiss.

And just when they were about to deepen the kiss, Shigure called for them from down stairs. "Kyo! Yuki! Tohru! Hurry up! I'm starving!"

Kyo stood up. Tohru blushed. He smiled and they walked back down. Yuki met them in the hallway, seeing the cat coming out of Tohru's room yet, he didn't say a word about it. He was happy for them.

All three came down one after another.

"Ok, great lets go!" Shigure headed out to the front and suddenly stopped. "I've forgot!"

"What?" Yuki asked.

"Shigure!" Ayame called from the front entrance.

"Yeah, I've forgot that Aya is joining us and there he is."

They walked up to him and together the five of them headed out for a sushi place. Sushi was always a good choice to eat; everyone enjoyed it, including the cat who loved fish. They ordered variety of sushi: tuna, salmon, mackerel, bass, squid, shrimp and many other seaweed type rolls.

During the meal, Ayame talked about the up coming events, "So… what are your plan after graduation?" He addressed the three high school students.

Tohru explained that she wanted to continue school and go to college. She would need to continue working part-time to pay for her tuition. She also considered looking for another job that was more related to her career. Maybe, she could get a job in a hospital or asks Hatori if she could help out in his medical office. Though he is not an animal doctor, but still, he would be a good source to go to, to learn and to experience how a life of a doctor would be.

Yuki had talked to his master about helping out in the dojo, but his master had advised him to continue school as well. He could help out when ever he wanted and gained experience in running a dojo, but he should consider other opportunities, because he's an intelligent boy and he shouldn't be wasting his gift.

Kyo didn't say much. He had no plan whatsoever, but he knew that he wasn't going to allow Tohru to leave him, so he just might as well join her in college and give it his best.

"Hmm…" Shigure was enjoying his foods. "…so you guys are set after graduation then. That's good."

Ayame continued his babbling while Shigure stuffed himself. "And about the wedding…"

Everyone stopped at that instant and looked at him.

"The outfits are ready. All the alterations are done. I'll bring them over on the day before the wedding or you guys can come by and pick them up. I don't mind either way. All the invitations were sent out. The wedding will be held at the main house and everyone in the Sohma's household is invited. This is so exciting… Imagine… Tohru… getting married."

"It seemed like you know a lot about what's going on with the wedding." Yuki observed.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I've been helping Shigure with all the planning." Ayame replied. "And, like I said before, I like planning happy events such as this." He covered his frustration with a smile. Yet, behind that smile, he was thinking otherwise, 'Yes, I like to plan these kinda events, but this one… I'm not very happy. It's a bit nerve racking to plan this for Shigure… because he's marrying someone so special, someone that I can never compare myself to. She is just too wonderful. I wonder… the wedding is so close now… Why hasn't he told Tohru about me? Could he be? No… he said so himself that he isn't…'

"Shigure?" Tohru asked.

"Hmm…" Still chewing his food.

"I want to…" She hesitated. Kyo held onto her hand under the table to give her strength.

"About the wedding…"

He swallowed. "Yes, what about the wedding? Everything is ready like Aya said, so you don't have to worry a thing about it." He continued to gaze over the food and couldn't decide what to eat next.

"No, that's not what I mean." She squeezed her fist tighter. "What I mean it to say is that…"

"OH, NO!" Shigure jumped out from the table.

"What?" Everyone asked.

"The draft for my next project is due tomorrow morning. I'd totally forgot about it."

"What are you going to do?" Ayame asked.

"Let's finish up here and I'll think of something on the way home."

They finished dinner and all walked home together. They walked Ayame back to his place first and then headed back to Shigure's place later. On the way home, Tohru felt a bit disappointed and uneasy as she walked beside Shigure. Kyo and Yuki followed behind them.

Tohru tried to tell Shigure again as they passed the front yard and onto the porch. "Shigure…"

"Oh, no time to talk Tohru. I'm sorry, I know that you just got home and probably have a lot to talk to me about, but I need to go and work on those papers now."

"You had three weeks to work on them, so why didn't you finish them yet?" Yuki asked.

"I was… busy…" He said and disappeared to his study.

She turned around, peeked up with her sad eyes and lightly sighed in front of Kyo and Yuki.

"There is always tomorrow." Kyo said calmly, placing his hand on her slender shoulder.

"Yeah, everything will work out just fine. You'll have your chance to tell him. That damn dog can sometimes be too full of himself, but he isn't stupid, so eventually he should realize it." Yuki said, cheering her.

She inhaled a long breath. "Yes… You're both right. I can tell him tomorrow."

The two boys nodded and they all snuggled in for school start again tomorrow.

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**Back Stage Discussion:**

Smile: Okay, tell me what you think. I didn't want to just let Tohru tell Shigure that easily. After all, there should always be obstacle even near the end.

Shigure: What? What did Tohru wanted to tell me?

Kyo: You should know…

Shigure: Know what? I'm too busy now… I don't think that I'll make the deadline in time. What should I do?

Ayame: Well, you always seem to have fun with that editor of yours, so do what you normally do.

Shigure: Won't you get mad at me?

Ayame: I can't prevent you from having fun, but just don't have too much fun.

Shigure: I know exactly what to do… (mischievous thoughts)

Ayame: What?

Shigure: I'm not telling…

Ayame: Shigure!


	19. Decision

**Chapter 19 – Decision**

The next morning, Shigure was no where to be found. He left a note on the door of his study saying that he had gone to an author convention trip oversea and will be back the day before the wedding. His editor came by that morning and was crying her eyes out as usually.

Once again, Tohru was disappointed as she, Kyo and Yuki walked to school. "Why did Shigure disappear like that?" She asked.

"I'll bet that he is hiding somewhere nearby and isn't at any damn convention!" Kyo exclaimed. He was also disappointed about Shigure leaving.

"It's obvious that he's hiding away from his editor. I don't know why she kept on working with him for so many years? How can anyone stay sane with him treating her like that? I wonder…" Yuki suddenly stopped walking. "Have you ever read his book?"

"No." They both answered.

"I wonder if they're any good."

"I'm sure that he must be a fine writer to make a living out of it. And if his editor loves his works and is able to stay with him for this long, then it must mean that he's a great writer."

"Yeah, that a good way to put it. I guess that I'll check them out on of these days."

"Yah, yah, whatever, we're going to be late… come on." Kyo took Tohru's hand and ran off with her leaving Yuki behind.

Yuki continued to walk at his normal pace and as he reached the front gate of the school he found a smile. There she was standing in her blue uniform and wearing her hair in a braid as usual. It looked like she was waiting for him. He came up to greet her and both walked to class together.

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The next few days of school went by quickly. All final examinations were already given before the senior went on the school trip. Grades were posted on the bulletin board by scores. Yuki and Hana, of course were in the top ten. Uo was not far behind. Then come Kyo and Tohru, though they were not the smartest, yet they did passed with flying colors.

Since exams were over, the last few days of school were mostly gathering sessions and helping out with the preparation for the senior graduation.

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The graduation day came and everyone gather together. Old and young, big and small, friend and foe, all came together to for this special occasion.

Yuki, as the student body president gave a speech to his fellow classmates. His friends below the podium were rooting for him, shouting his name and making happy noises.

After the ceremony, Yuki, Kyo, Tohru, Hana, Uo, Haru and Momiji all got together for a celebration at Shigure's place.

"A cheer for us all!" Uo announced holding up her sake. "High school is over!"

"Yes, but it's also sad in a way." Hana said.

"What do you mean?" Yuki asked, sitting by her side.

"It had given us so many memories, especially in the last two years."

"Yes, I agree. I must be the most fortunate girl on earth. I have the best two friends in the world: Uo and Hana. Then, in the past two years, I've got to meet the Sohma one after another. I'm so happy to know everyone." Tohru said cheerfully.

"Is Shigure not here?" Momiji asked. "There is so much food and usually he would be out here drooling over the food by now."

"Yeah, that jerk left five days ago!" Kyo smacked the table. "He left us a note and just disappeared to who knows where?"

"Then, is the wedding still on?" Haru asked.

Neither Kyo nor Tohru answered. They both let out a quiet sigh.

"Well, if it was to be cancelled then we would have known it by now, right?" Momiji pointed.

"The wedding is still on. The problem right now is the groom." Yuki responded.

"What are you saying? Kyo is the groom, right?" Uo asked.

"Hmm… no, right now it's Shigure. You see… I hadn't had a chance to tell him about Kyo and I." Tohru explained slowly.

"Tohru, you must tell him as soon as he gets home, okay?" Momiji said quickly, still with his feminine like voice. He hadn't changed much since Tohru first met him.

"Yes, you must." Hana said.

"I will…" She replied as she looked into her lover's eyes. "…definitely."

"Alright, then! Everything is good. Let's continue to party!" Uo once again raised her sake and this time, by accident, she spilled her toast on Hana's legs.

Yuki helped to clean the stain off her.

"Thank you." She blushed.

After the all the foods, drinks and games, Yuki walked Hana home. Uo was accompanied by Haru and Momiji. Kyo and Tohru were left alone at home. They were so exhausted; they snuggled in each other's arm and slept right in the living room.

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Tohru woke up the next day. It was early, she started day by giving Kyo a little chaste kiss on the lips without him noticing it. She went and got him a light blanket then started cleaning the trash from yesterday party. After all the cleaning was done, she prepared breakfast. Kyo and Yuki joined her at the table.

"Don't worry." Kyo said, observing her anxious face. "Whether he comes back or not, I'll never let you marry him."

"Kyo…" She smiled.

"Thank you for the delicious food." Yuki said as he picked up his plate and excused him from the table.

"Where are you going?" Kyo asked.

"I… um… have plans today." He replied.

"Are you seeing Hana?" Tohru asked.

"Yes, I am." He smiled.

On his way out through the front gate he saw Kagura walking toward him.

"Good morning." She greeted him.

"Good morning." He replied.

"Are you going out somewhere? Did I come at the bad time?" She asked.

"No. I mean… it's still early, so if you wanted to talk, then I could stay for a little longer." He replied. "Are you here to see Kyo?"

"Yes…" She replied softly. "I wanted to see how things are developing between him and Tohru."

"They're doing fine. They've got back together."

"Really? That's… good news."

"You don't sound too happy about it."

"But, I do… it's just that, you know…" She dropped her head.

"I understand. You still love him."

She nodded.

"Kagura…" He lifted up her head and looked into her in the eyes. She had beautiful brown eyes and not too long ago, he found that she was very fine looking. "You've changed. You're becoming a lot more lady-like and you're beautiful."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are… and you'll be able to forget him. Give yourself some time; time will help ease your heartache." He smiled. "A pretty girl like you will not stay available for too long. I'm sure that there are many guys out there that would welcome you with open arms."

"You think so…?"

"I do."

She took a deep breath. "Thank you." She managed a smile, "I don't want to hold you up any longer. You look like you need to be somewhere important, so you should leave. You don't want to be late."

"Yes, that's right. I don't want to have her wait for me."

"Her?"

"Oh… I've forgot. I hadn't mentioned it to you yet. I'm going out with Ms. Hanajima. She is a classmate from school and also a very good friend of Tohru. We've been seeing each other."

"I see… I'm happy for you… you've found someone…"

He patted her on the shoulder to give her support. "And, so will you…"

"Someday…"

"I guess I'll see you again tomorrow. I'll introduce her to you then."

"Okay, tomorrow then." She waved goodbye and as she watched him disappeared into the distance; she stood there for a moment, "If Kyo and Tohru are back together, then… I should… I shouldn't be bothering them now. I'll give them my blessing at the wedding." She took in another deep breath and walked home.

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Back in the house, Tohru and Kyo had finished their breakfast. Tohru cleaned the table with Kyo's help. While she was in the kitchen cleaning the dishes, she spaced off and let the water run. It overfilled the sink and layered the kitchen floor.

"Tohru!" Kyo stopped the running faucet.

"O… I'm sorry." She woke up and realized what happened. She grabbed the kitchen towels and mop to clean up the mess right away.

"What's wrong? What's bothering you?" He asked.

"Shigure… he said that he'll be back today, but…"

"It's still early, maybe in the afternoon. Don't worry; the wedding is tomorrow, so he should be back before then."

"I know, but… I'm just too nervous. What if he doesn't come back?"

"Don't worry…" Kyo said as he helped her with the damped towels. "I know! Let's go out for the rest of the day, so that we could get our minds out of here. Come to think of it, we had never been on a date before have we?"

"No." She replied with a little redness on her cheeks.

"Then, we should. I'll put these towels in the laundry for you and we should get ready to go out… on our first date."

"Okay…" She replied shyly. "Where do you want to go?"

"No, where do _you_ want to go?" He repeated her question. For him, he could careless where they're going; it didn't matter as long as he was with her, then he'll go just about anywhere.

"I only want to be with you. It doesn't matter where we go." She replied.

"I was just thinking the same."

They both smiled.

"Okay, then we'll start with walking and where ever our feet take us that is where we'll go." He suggested.

"That's sound good."

They both went upstairs to clean up and dressed. When they came back down, each of them was wearing a bright and somewhat shy smile.

The weather was warm and the sky was clear, both Tohru and Kyo dressed lightly. First, they found themselves walking through the town's central park admiring the trees, fountains and the playful children playing in the grass. They found a spot under a nice sturdy tree with lots of shade. Tohru sat beside her beloved, leaning her head against his shoulder while he wrapped his arm around her. All they did was sitting, not much as a word was spoken, yet both hearts were at peace.

Later, they had lunch at an outdoor restaurant and then found themselves passing by a pet shop. Tohru, instantly dragged Kyo into the shop. "Ooohhh… look at them. They're so cute!"

He looked at a couple of white bunnies with red eyes. "What is so cute about them?"

She picked one up onto her arm and ran her fingers on its back. "They're so soft and cuddly." She held it by its arms and showed it to Kyo, but he frowned, so she put it back into its cage.

Then she pulled him over the little brown, fuzzy hamsters in the cages, "Aren't they adorable?"

He stared at the creatures, "They looked like that damn rat to me, but with yellow hair."

"Oh, Kyo… don't you like animals?"

"No, not really." He replied bluntly.

"What about cats? You like them… don't you?" She took his hand and followed the purring sounds to the back of the shop. "Here they are! Kittens! They're my favorite." She exclaimed as she pet the little animals.

"Why are they you're favorites?"

"Because…" She turned around and gave Kyo a big and tight hug. "First, it's because they are so cute. Second, because of the Chinese Zodiac; you know about all the stories about how the cat was tricked and never had a chance to join the other animals in the banquet. I've always pity the cat and wished that I could be there for him. And, the most important reason of all is you."

"Me?"

"Yes, you… they always remind me of you."

"Tohru…" He whispered.

"I've been very happy these last couple of days. I wish that I can always be with you like this… forever."

"Me, too…" He held her tighter. "…and you know what?"

"Hmm?"

"I do like cats…"

"I knew you do…" She whispered into his chest.

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They came home late that evening with bags of groceries to prepare some chicken curry. After a long day, Tohru and Kyo decided to have something easy and fast to make. Kyo helped her dunk the chicken and curry sauce together while she chopped the carrots and potatoes. It didn't take long for Tohru to cook and mixed all the ingredients together.

Dinner was ready and set and Yuki joined them at the table.

"Hmm… this looks good. I hadn't had curry for a while." Yuki said.

"Yes, me too, and Kyo suggested it. He even helped with the cooking." Tohru replied.

"He did, huh? Well, let's eat then."

"I'M HOME!" Shigure announced as he walked in wearing his formal suit. "Wow! Dinner! I'm so hungry!" He welcomed himself at the table.

"Look who decided to drop in." Kyo sneered.

"Hey, I live here too." Shigure replied.

"Then where have you been the past few days?" Kyo asked.

"Like, I said in my note; I had to attend an author convention oversea."

"Do you think that we would believe that?" Yuki asked.

"Why not? I would never lie."

"Yeah, right… like the time you said that Yuki and I were sick." Kyo mocked.

"That wasn't a lie. You guys were sick… love sick…" He teased.

"Hgh… there is no use to talk sense to him." Yuki sighed.

Shigure ignored his cousins and addressed Tohru. "I am so tired after my long trip. Tohru, darling… can you get me something to eat? Please… I'm SO hungry…" Shigure asked.

"Sure, here you go." She replied and gave him a serving.

"Hmm… curry, they're the best!"

While he enjoyed his food, Tohru thought that this was her chance to tell him about Kyo. "Shigure…"

"Yeah."

"I need to tell you something… it's about the wedding." She said timidly.

"Oh, yeah… that. I wanted to talk to you about this too." He replied. "I…" he hesitated "You see Aya and I…" Tohru was looking straight at him. "How should I say this? I cannot…"

"SHIGURE!" Ayame interrupted the conversation as he stormed inside the house. "I've brought the outfits for you and Tohru. You guys didn't come by to pick them up and tomorrow is the day, so I thought that I would bring them over." He found everyone in the dinning room. "There you are…" He said as he entered the room, yet his foot was caught between the bags of the clothing and the door frame; he dropped his weight, "Ahh…" right on top of Shigure.

"Aya!" Shigure caught him, but then one of his elbows was pushed back and sunk right into his dinner.

"I'm sorry!" Aya apologized as he pulled himself up and laughed nervously. "At least, the outfits are safe."

"Are both of you okay?" Tohru cried.

"Ohhhh… My shirt. My fooood…" Shigure cried.

"I'm sorry. I'll get you clean up." Aya pulled Shigure away from the table and got him into the bathroom.

"Agh! Not again! That two idiots!" Kyo growled.

"I agree, for some odd reason, they always managed to get in the way whenever Tohru tried to talk about the wedding."

"Yeah…" She murmured.

They continued with dinner. Shigure changed. He and Ayame had dinner later after the others were done. Ayame finished his first and walked his empty portion to Tohru in the kitchen.

"I'm so sorry about earlier." He said to her as he gave her his plate to wash. "I was so careless. I should have been more careful then Shigu would be able to tell you about us."

She was concentrating on the dishes and the running water kept her attention away. She didn't hear a thing that Ayame was saying to her. She was more concern about telling Shigure about Kyo.

"Tohru?" He patted her on the shoulder.

"Huh? Oh… I'm sorry." She replied. "I didn't mean to space off like that."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing really… it's just I'm nervous about the wedding tomorrow." She continued with her dishes while trying to figure out how to approach Shigure later. It was getting late, and she must tell him tonight.

"So… Tohru?" Ayame was still with her in the kitchen. "Are you really going through it with Shigure tomorrow? Isn't there someone else that you like more than him?" He asked nervously.

"Well, I… I do like…" She was about to say Kyo.

"Tohru." Shigure came into the kitchen as well. "Thank you for the delicious dinner. Can you please help me with this?" He gave her his plate to wash. She smile and nodded. "Aya…" He continued. "It's getting late. Are you going home soon?"

"Can I say here for tonight?" Ayame pleaded with his hands together right underneath his chin. "I'll not cause any more trouble. I want to stay so that tomorrow…" His voice dropped. "…I can help you and Tohru with your outfit and the… wedding."

Of course, Shigure couldn't deny Ayame's sad face. "Sure, that's a great idea."

"And… can I… share room with you tonight? Even if it's the last time…" Ayame shamefully looked away.

"Aya… you can always share room with me. Now, let's go and get that extra futon." Shigure replied. The two men left the kitchen and headed for bed.

'That's odd.' Tohru thought about their conversation just now and she could have sworn that she heard Ayame's voice changed.

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Soon after dinner, everyone settled into their bedroom. Tohru lied in bed, twisting and turning and cannot shut her eyes. Then all of a sudden, her door swung open and Kyo walked in. "Tohru…"

"Kyo?" She stood up.

"We must go now." He took her hand.

"Go where?"

"To that jerk's room."

"Do you mean Shigure?"

"Yeah, who else?"

"But, he and Ayame are sleeping and I don't want to disturb them." For some reason, she felt like giving those two men some room together. She didn't know why, but her intuition let her to believe so.

"Why? What about us? If we don't say it tonight then, you'll marry that jerk, tomorrow?"

"No, I couldn't."

"Then, let's go. You haven't had any luck with him, so I decided to talk to him for you."

"Kyo…" She melted into his concerned eyes. "Okay."

He walked her downstairs to find the main bedroom.

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While Kyo and Tohru were upstairs, Shigure and Ayame were downstairs; neither man could sleep either.

"How was your trip?" Ayame asked lying in his lover's arms.

"It was interesting. I'd met a couple of new writers and I'd even got a recognition award a being creative writer with exceptional abilities or something like that."

"That's good and I'd dropped off those papers for you. Your editor was crying when she got them."

"Yeah? Thanks… I was in a rush that morning and I wished that I was here to see her crying face. She's just so cute to watch."

"Cuter than me?"

"Aya…" He turned his lover over onto his back, brushed off all the hair that was covering his lover's face and admired his lover's glowing face. "You're the only one for me…" He leaned forward to warm his lover's cold lips.

"Shiggy…" Ayame moaned in their kiss as Shigure eat inside his mouth.

Apparently, the extra futon that they got was not necessary. Shigure continued to kiss his gorgeous lover and played with his long silky bright hair. He ran his fingers from the root of the hair and followed its length to the tip as he touched his way down to Ayame's waist and pulled the slender body closer to his limp. His kissed ran off to the side of Ayame's neck leaving trail of tiny kisses along the way.

Ayame tilted his head to give Shigure more access. "Shig…" He breathed.

Shigure continued to suck the soft sensitive skin around the neck and trailed into the center where he found the hollow indent of his lover. He slid his hand into his lover's yukata and split it opened leaving the pale chest and every inches of the front body exposed. "You're beautiful." He whispered as he tongued his kiss around the nipples.

Ayame arched his back in response to his lover's touch. "Shig… please… tell me then…" He managed between breaths.

"What?" He muttered at the soft skin as he pulled off his own yukata and buried it underneath the blanket as he shoved it away to the side to give him more space.

"About tomor… Row – o." He groaned as Shigure crept lower and only inches away from between his legs.

Shigure crawled back up to give Ayame a smile of assurance. "Don't worry I'll talk to her later…"

"SHIGURE!" Suddenly, Kyo kicked the door opened and there he and Tohru stood like statues staring at the two naked men inside.

The reckless entrance startled the two men in the room as they quickly grabbed their yukatas and put them back on. Kyo had already stepped in front of Tohru using his body as a shield to cover her from seeing the awkward scene.

"I could explain this." Shigure said as he walked up to the intruders.

"Like hell you do!" Kyo growled.

"This is what I tried to explain earlier at dinner."

Tohru stepped out to confront Shigure. "I kinda had this strange feeling about you and Ayame, but I didn't expect to see…" She said shyly as her face reddens.

"Yeah," he scratched his head, "It's hard to believe, but we've been like this for quite some time now."

"Since high school…" Ayame made a point.

"That long… It had never appeared to me that you and Aya were together. Why didn't you tell us?" She asked.

"It's complicated." Shigure replied.

"Like what?" Kyo mocked.

"Like the Sohma's curse, like we're cousin, and like same sex marriage are not allow in Japan." Ayame replied.

"Why the hell didn't you tell us sooner, so that we didn't have to go all this pain and heartache?" Kyo exclaimed.

"You know what my intention was went I proposed to Tohru. I got you and her together, but then she lost her memories. Aya being an idiot as he is; he had to go and tell her that she and I were engaged and to be married. I cannot break her heart and said that I love someone else." Shigure replied.

"So, is that why you didn't tell me about Aya? Because you're afraid that I might get hurt…" Tohru asked.

"Like you really care?" Kyo snarled.

"Of course, I do! I love Tohru too, but not as a spouse more like a sibling and I want to make sure that her health and well being is not harm in anyway." Shigure argued.

"We really do…" Ayame said. "Shigure and I tried to help Tohru to get closer to you and to help her to remember you. I recalled Shigu said that he sent you with Tohru to visit her mom's grave, but instead of getting you guys together, it backfired and put a bigger distance between the two of you. Then, I suggested the barbeque and fireworks. After that night, it appeared that you opened up to each other a little more, but still…"

"But still, it wasn't enough effort." Shigure completed the sentence and continued as he addressed Tohru, "Time flew as the wedding day came closer and closer, and I decided that I should tell you about Aya right after your school trip, but circumstances prevented it. I tried it again tonight, but like you had seen, it wasn't a success either." He took in a deep breath. "I'm sorry."

"We both are." Ayame added.

"No, it's okay… you don't have to apologize. You and Ayame were both concerned about me because you both love me and I love you… my two great brothers."

"Tohru!" Kyo exclaimed. "You can't just forgive them just like that!"

She turned around to look at Kyo, "It's okay; everything and everyone is happy now… just like Shigure promised. He has Aya, Yuki has Hana and I have you." She reached for his hand and squeezed her fingers firmly as she addressed the two older men, "Shigure. Ayame. Please don't worry anymore… I've made my decision. I choose… I chose Kyo." She smiled graciously.

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**Back Stage Discussion:**

Smile: Okay, the final chappie is coming up next, but it's a short one. I don't have much left to write for this story.

Shigure: Wow, it's finally coming to an end. I cannot believe it.

Ayame: Neither, do I.

Smile: Me, too.

Tohru: Please update soon. I want to know what happens next.

Kyo: Yeah! Or else I'll kill you!


	20. Matrimony

**Chapter 20 – Matrimony **

The wedding day came and it was held in the Sohma's main house. Shigure was not the groom and Ayame was not the best man. The groom and his best man stood in front of the podium and behind it was Akito; he was in charge of the wedding ceremony. Everyone was waiting for the bride's arrival, her final step forward into the world and becoming a woman. The chapel bells chimed and the wedding march started. Tohru entered and escorted by Shigure down the aisle. Everyone was mesmerized by her charm as she walked to her groom. He was full with contentment as he waited stunningly in his tuxedo.

The wedding started and Akito recited the holy matrimony idiom. First he addressed Kyo and then Tohru. Both said, "I do," and exchanged wedding bands. Akito continued, "You may kiss the bride." The groom kissed his bride and everyone went soggy, tears of happiness were shared from the bride and groom to all their guests. As they left the chapel, the bride's bouquet was thrown high into the sky and landed in Kagura's hands. Everyone was surprise, yet smiled and knew that it was an indication that she would also find her happiness in a nearby future very soon.

During the banquet, family and friends, one after another gave their blessing to the newly wed. Akito, for once wasn't mad at all, he maintained a straight face, yet it glowed with approval. Hatori advised them to take good care of each other. Shigure and Ayame gave them two big squeezes. Yuki and Hana congratulated them; both were blushing at the thought of marriage. Uo warned Kyo to watch his back and if she ever finds that he hurt Tohru in any way, then she would have to kill him personally. Kagura said that she was sorry for all the troubles that she caused. Kisa and Hiro had a lot of fun and were also feeling a bit embarrassed as they come to age and realized their feelings for each other. Haru gave Kyo a big smack on the back and Momiji admired Tohru with teary eyes.

It was finally Kazuma's turn; he gave his son a gentle pat on the shoulder. He was very pleased to see Kyo all grown up and found his happiness. Kyo immediately returned a smile, expressing his appreciation and thank him for caring and looking after him all these time. Kyo knew well in his heart that his master loved him and he also loved his master, more than just a mentor; Kyo loved his master like a father.

Tohru didn't have many relatives. Her grandpa came to bless her, "My child… you grew up to be a fine bride." She hugged him to thank him for everything that he had given her, all his support and all the love that he had spare for her after her parents were gone from her life.

The wedding ended and the bride and groom were sent off to their new home provided by the Sohmas as a wedding gift. They took some time to tour their new home. The house was big as big as Shigure's place. It was furnished with appliances and furniture and everything was new and spotless.

As the sun set; the newly wed visited their bedroom. Both were a little embarrassed yet happy all the same. Kyo carried his love to their nest and laid her down. "You're so beautiful." He said as he caressed her face and parted her lips.

"Kyo…" She pulled him down with her arms wrapping him against her chest. He could hear her heart beat; it was pounding strong and fast.

"Tohru…" He lifted his weight off her. "I will never let you leave me ever again. You belong to me and I belong to you…" He said candidly as he pulled off his tie and threw it beside the bed. He move up to find her lips and said in his kiss. "I want to be a part of you... forever."

"Kyo…" She moaned his name as he deepened the kiss, thrusting inside of her, tasting, and exchanging their wetness. His hands were sliding, touching her where she'd never been touched before. She broke away and sat up to catch her breath. "Kyo… I…"

"What's wrong?" He breathed.

"I'm scared." She said timidly. "I… I don't have experience."

"I'm glad to hear that. This is my first time, too." He whispered as he pressed their lips together.

She blushed and looked away as he removed his coat and unbuttoned his shirts. He took her and hand placed it on his exposed chest. "Feel my heart; it's throbbing just for you." He said.

She bended the tips of her fingers just little as she looked at him. His tan skin was smooth; it glided nicely along the touch of her hand as she moved in closer to rub her cheek against it. She could also hear his heartbeat; it had been a rhythm that she found captivating. "This feels good." She said and her body tensed by her touch and his heart beat.

"Tohru… I want to see you… to see everything…" He said as he reached for the zipper behind her dress.

She looked up at him and gave him her approval.

He slowly pulled the zipper down, dropping the strapless dress from her chest, inch by inch, until it rested on her waist. He smiled at the gorgeous body before him as he found her lips again. He kissed her until she fell back onto the soft mattress. Arms were exploring, skins were touching and legs intertwining as Kyo found the remaining garment of Tohru's dress and kicked it away with his legs.

Instinct took over.

A paradise of yearning, love, lust and serenity found them as they continued to explore the unknown and found ecstasy in every kiss, every touch and every body movement.

"Kyo… I love you."

"And, I love you."

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**Back Stage Discussion: **

Smile: That's it people! Like it or not, this is the end.

Shigure: Wow! That was a fun ride.

Ayame: Yeah! Now I can have Shiggy all to myself! Congrats for Kyo and Tohru!

Tohru: I love happy endings…

Kyo: Yeah, me too.

Yuki: Me, three.

Smile: Thank you everyone for reading and reviewing. When I started this story, I wasn't too serious, and still I'm not all satisfied with it, but I'm not going back to revise it anytime soon… maybe even never. Well, I guessed it's time to say goodbye… the story has ended.

**…The End… **


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